



JR* 



^°«* 



r « . c\ _ • 











V<0 

<G* 






















■ft, • • • ■$. 

R* 4? «^» 






7% **<? "M 






* 1 /-* 






o V 



yi> . c . . „ <s> 6* c • " • . "*b 










«2> ^ 

■o V c<T .V 

4°, ^^ • 



c^-, 






Jfamous Ibomes of Great Britain 


ano tbcir Stories 


flDore jfamous 1bo?nes of Great Britain 


an& tbcir Stories 


©tber jfamous Ibomes of Great Britain 


an& tbeir Stories 


)£oite& by H. 1b. /IDalan 


Eacb in One Uolume IRopal ©ctav>o, Containing 


IRcarlg 200 Illustrations 



Compton Wynyates, from the Southeast. 



i 



m 



MORE TAMOVS HOMES 

OF 

GREAT BRITAIN 

AND 

THEIR, STORIES 





EDITED BY 
A. H. MALAN 




I 



0\ 



& 



I 



COMPTON 

WYNYATES 

LEVENS HALL 

NAWORTH CASTLE 

COTEHELE 

LONGLEAT 

GLAMIS 




MOUNT 

EDGCUMBE 

BLICKLING HALL 

RUFFORD ABBEY 

WILTON HOUSE 

INVERARAY 

KNOLE 




ILLUSTRATED 





G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York 

THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE, London 

MCMII 




?^i*V/;^^^v.ic/'. > ''..<'. , (').'. v W'r^ 






x- 



<^> 



Him 



Copyright, iSqq 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



Ubc Iftnfcfteibocfcer press, IHcw Jt'orf! 









Qf7~ 



PREFACE 



Thf. first series of Famous Homes of Great Britain has met 
with so gratifying a success that a second series has been pre- 
pared ; and the editor of the magazine for which these papers 
were written, and in which they originally appeared, has been 
asked to write a few introductory words. This, in a way, is 
with him a labour of love, as chance has willed it that he has 
been familiar from childhood with many of the houses described 
in this volume. As an Englishman, he will be pardoned the 
conviction that nowhere in the world can the old English coun- 
try home be surpassed, or even paralleled. In England, the 
town house has always been an unimportant accessory — it is 
round the country house that the family associations cluster ; it 
is the country house which is regarded as the cradle of the race, 
as the precious heritage to be faithfully handed over to the next 
generations for further enrichment and care at their hands. And 
in these old homes the predominant note is the sense of con- 
tinuity. Three or four centuries ago the predecessors of those 
now in possession walked along that same terrace, gazed upon 
that same familiar view, or in winter sat before that same hearth 
sculptured with the arms of the family — each generation attempt- 
ing to leave its mark in some further adornment of the loved 
home. It is true, and candour must admit it, that often the work 
of the present generation is confined to removing all trace of the 
vandalism and so-called "improvement " effected during the dis- 
astrous period from 1800 to i8so, tersely described by the French 
as "I'epoque du maiivais go/it." Surely there is something 



iv preface 

typical of the ever-renewed stream of life passing through these old 
homes in the mass of creepers and vines with which their time- 
worn grey walls are so often clothed, which, bursting into fresh 
green every spring, symbolises the never-ending procession of 
generations peopling the old houses. Is it insular prejudice which 
inquires where such velvet lawns can be matched ; where such 
glorious stretches of green park can be found, with the deer 
standing knee-deep in the bracken under the shade of the giant 
elms, and the grey tower of the fourteenth- century village church 
peering over the sweep of the woodlands ? This is the picture 
of the old home of the race which the younger sons of the family 
will carry always with them wherever their work may call them, 
whether to an Embassy in some Continental capital, or to the 
burning plains of India, or to far-off continents under the South- 
ern Cross. 

The houses selected for description in this series are admir- 
ably representative. Cotehele, Levens, and Compton Winyates 
are manor-houses — that is, buildings of comparatively modest 
dimensions built and primarily intended for dwelling-houses. 
Glamis and Naworth are feudal castles built for defence, but have 
been converted gradually into residences. Knole and Rul'ford 
are excellent examples of monastic and ecclesiastical buildings 
adapted to domestic use ; whilst Blickling, Longleat, and Wilton 
are stately palaces built at a time when it was considered proper 
for a great nobleman to surround himself with some degree of 
magnificence. 

Cotehele and Levens are perhaps the best examples in the 
kingdom of the "Manor-house" as distinct from the Castle. 
The interior decoration of Levens is of the best English period, 
and a modern architect could, with advantage both to himself 
and his patrons, make a prolonged study of it, and realise how 
admirable effects are produced by very simple means. He could 



preface v 

note (and lay the lesson to heart) the absence of all "fnssiness" 
in the decoration, and the perfect proportions throughout. The 
chief glory of Levens, however, will always be its garden. This 
garden, so perfectly in harmony with its surroundings, has grown 
up with the house, and is no afterthought. It can be taken as 
the most finished type of what an old English garden should be, 
with its fantastic forms of clipped yew, its wealth of old-fash- 
ioned flowers, and the curious impression of completeness which 
it leaves on the mind. The garden of Levens, seen in the blaze 
of the sunshine of an August afternoon, musical with the hum of 
myriads of bees, will never be forgotten. 

Of smaller size, Cotehele, at the other extremity of England, 
is equally perfect in its way. Shorn now, alas ! of the glory of 
its timber, all the victims of one gale, the surroundings of the 
house are rather prosaic in their bareness. But the chief interest 
of Cotehele lies in the fact that its interior and furniture have 
practically been untouched and unadded to since Charles I.'s 
time. The visitor can form some idea of what an interior was 
like at the beginning of the seventeenth century, though much 
of the work is of older date. The shutters and hangings in most 
of the bedrooms have been in their present position for four 
centuries ; the fireplaces have been untouched for the same 
period. The visitor privileged to stay at Cotehele will sleep in a 
room which wore its present aspect in the times of the Stuarts. 
Surely there are but few houses in the world where the hands of 
the clock of time have remained stationary for three centuries. 

It is a far cry from the warm, moist atmosphere of Cornwall, 
to the bleak straths of Forfarshire, but in Glamis we have a build- 
ing of absolutely unique interest. The lower portions of the 
central keep are grey with an unknown age. They stood before 
records existed, "their birth tradition notes not," and still they 
are used as living-rooms. Think of the thousands of forgotten 



vi preface 

ones who must have passed through these grim stone halls, 
where to-day children's feet patter as they did a thousand years 
ago. It is not as the home of Macbeth that Glamis is best 
known, but rather as the abiding-place of that strange mystery 
which has puzzled so many generations, and had so lavish an 
amount of useless conjecture wasted upon it. That the owner of 
Glamis transmits to his successor in the title an awesome secret 
is known throughout Europe, but knowledge stops there ; the 
mystery remains, as it has always done, an impenetrable one. 
Many of the finger-marks of the centuries were ruthlessly effaced 
at Glamis during the early part of this century, and much of the 
vandalism is irreparable ; also a large amount of modern work has 
been added ; still the principal facade is of matchless beauty, 
with its bevy of clustered turrets and pinnacles, of a beautiful 
pink sandstone mellowed into a hundred tints of grey, yellow, 
and crimson. 

Passing from Strathmore to the hop gardens of Kent we find 
another building without rival in its particular style. At a first 
glance the vast bulk of Knole recalls an Oxford college, and the 
impression is heightened by passing into the green quadrangles 
whose very counterpart could be found on the banks of the river 
Isis. The monastic impression given by Knole is explained when 
we remember that the greater portion was erected by Archbishop 
Bourchier as a palace for the See of Canterbury. Knole is indeed 
fortunate in its surroundings. The immense park with its superb 
timber and broken ground forms a typical English setting for the 
long, low grey building, covering in all some four acres. The 
chief interest of Knole, however, lies in the fact that the greater 
portion of the house, though daily tended and garnished, has not 
been inhabited for one hundred and fifty years. It is thus rather 
a museum than a dwelling-house, and has remained with its 
furniture and fittings intact in a way that would be impossible 



preface vii 

were they subjected to the daily wear and tear of life. Surely 
no such collection of precious things has ever been gathered 
under the roof of a private house. The rooms, the halls, the 
masses of works of art and curiosities seem endless. The visitor 
can step into the centuries at will. Here relics of the Spanish 
Armada, here the gorgeous bedroom of King James I. precisely as 
he left it, there King Charles l.'s billiard-table complete with balls 
and cues as the maker delivered it, or the bedroom of a beauty of 
the time of George II., with her favourite books, her needlework, 
and paint-box. This is certainly the enchanted castle of the 
Sleeping Beauty ; here, again, the centuries stand still at word of 
command, and this constitutes the unique interest and charm of 
Knole. 

Once more, let us cross England from leafy Kent to the blue 
waters of Plymouth Sound and take a glimpse of Mount Edg- 
cumbe. The house here is not the chief attraction, being merely 
a rambling family mansion, most desirable to inhabit, but with no 
pretensions to magnificence. It is the glorious park, occupying 
the whole of the peninsula separating Plymouth Sound and the 
Hamoaze from the English Channel, and the curiously novel 
effect of seeing huge forest trees actually dipping their branches 
into the salt water, which gives Mount Edgcumbe its peculiar 
charm. Mount Edgcumbe is indeed a mine of unexpected 
contrasts. Very beautiful, though of small extent, are the 
lower gardens, named severally the "English," "French," and 
" Italian." From the Italian garden, where groves of orange trees 
flourish apparently as vigorously in the soft Cornish air as on the 
shores of the Bay of Naples, and where an old Italian fountain 
of many-coloured marbles tinkles harmoniously, whilst white 
marble balustrades and giant ilex complete the illusion, it is literally 
but Ave steps to a terrace lapped by the deep water of the Sound, 
where torpedo-boat destroyers dart in every direction, and stately 



VI II 



IPreface 



war-ships move slowly up to their moorings in the Hamoaze, 
whilst all around is the busy life of a large seaport. Everywhere 
at Mount Edgcumbe is this note of the unexpected. A long 
glade of beech trees leads the eye straight into the sea. A 
battery of modern guns peeps out of the thickets of greenery. 
Under the luxuriant subtropical foliage of the Terrace Walk are 
apparently innocuous little platforms. These are to work the 
deadly Brennan torpedoes for the defence of Plymouth, for, owing 
to its position, Mount Edgcumbe is the key of the system of 
defences for the dockyard and arsenal. 

Of Longleat and Wilton, the twin palaces of Wiltshire, it 
may be said that they have been placed amidst beautiful sur- 
roundings, and that every succeeding generation has endeavoured 
to supplement Nature's work. Each house contains countless art 
treasures, and the exterior of Longleat is one of the most beautiful 
in Europe. Each of them, in its way, is the very type of the 
stately English country house, enriched by the loving care of 
many generations. 

The articles describing these and other Houses comprised in 
this volume are necessarily brief, and being in many instances 
from the pen of the respective owners, are characterised by a 
certain reticence in eulogy. Should the American readers of these 
pages have an opportunity of visiting the originals, they may 
rest assured that they will be amply repaid. 

Frederic Hamilton. 

London, July, igoo. 



CONTENTS 



Blickling Hall ....... A. H. Malan i 

Situated in Norfolk, and gives the second title to the Earl of Buck- 
inghamshire, who is also Baron Hobart of Blickling. Is said to have 
been the birthplace of Anne Bolevn. It is now occupied by the 
Dowager Marchioness of Lothian, and is conveniently reached from 
Aylsham. It is peculiarly rich in MSS. A beautiful specimen of a 
large Elizabethan mansion, with lovely gardens. 

Knole Lord Sackville }i 

Situated near Sevenoaks in Kent, and is the home of Lord Sackville. 
Was occupied by Archbishop Cranmer, who gave it up to Henry VIII. 
Mary gave the house to Cardinal Pole, on whose death it passed again 
to the Crown. Elizabeth then gave it to Dudley, who subsequently 
surrendered it to her, and it then passed into the hands of Thomas 
Sackville, an ancestor of the present Lord Sackville and a relative of 
the Boleyns. He was also author of Gorboduc. It is within one 
hour of London. A vast treasure-house of works of art, and one 
of the most interesting and unique houses in the world. 

Cotehele A. H. Malan 55 

Situated in Cornwall, and is one of the seats of the Mount Edgcumbe 
family, into which it was brought by Hillaria, an orphan girl who mar- 
ried William of Eggecombe, a small Devon squire, in the middle of 
the fourteenth century. It is easily accessible from Plymouth by 
steamer up the Tamar, and is an excellent specimen of an old feudal 
manor house. Many of the rooms have remained untouched and 
unaltered since the time of Charles I. 

Glamis Lady Glamis 91 

Situated in Forfarshire, and is the seat of the Earl of Strathmore. It 
is the castle referred to by Shakespeare in Macbeth. The oldest in- 
habited house in the United Kingdom, and the home of the curious 
"Glamis Mystery. " 



x (Contents 

I'AGE 

Levens Hall Mrs. Bagot hq 

Situated in Westmorland. The home of Captain Bagot, M.P. It is 
full of Jacobite associations. Both house and gardens are perfect of 
their kind and have been little changed for two hundred years. 

Mount Edgcumbe . . Lady Ernestine Edgcumbe 147 

Situated on the extreme boundary of the county of Cornwall, and 
is divided from Plymouth — which is in Devonshire — only by the 
estuary of the river Tamar. The home of the Earl of Mount Edg- 
cumbe. It was formerly known as East Stonehouse, and was brought 
into the family by Joan Durnford, who married Sir Piers Edgcumbe in 
the reign of Henry VIII. His son Richard rebuilt the house and named 
it Mount Edgcumbe. It is most beautifully situated, overlooking Ply- 
mouth Sound, and has fine subtropical gardens. 

Wilton House. . . The Countess of Pembroke 17s 

Situated in Wiltshire, and is the home of the Earl of Pembroke. It 
contains a wonderful collection of pictures; and boasts the finest 
room in England, the " Double Cube," entirely painted by Van Dyck. 
The gardens of Wilton are very beautiful. It is easily accessible from 
Salisbury. 

Lonsleat A. H. Malan 20^; 

Situated in Wiltshire, and is the seat of the Marquis of Bath. It was 
built by Sir John Thynne in i S67 to 1 S69. One of the most mag- 
nificent private houses in Europe, and surrounded by a superb park. 

Rufford Abbey Lord Savile 233 

Situated in Nottinghamshire, and is the seat of Lord Savile. It 
was originally a Cistercian monastery and remained so until the ab- 
olition of monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. Rufford was then 
given to the Earl of Shrewsbury, whose grandson was one of the 
jailers of Marv, Queen of Scots, and married "en secondes noces 
the celebrated Bess of Hardwick. His second daughter by this 
marriage married Charles Stuart, and became the mother of the 
ill-fated Arabella Stuart. A daughter of his by his first marriage 
married Sir George Savile, and the Rufford estate was made over 
to him. The house is situated not far from the forest of Sherwood, 
made famous in history and romance by the exploits of Robin Hood. 
Rufford contains the finest collection of tapestry in England. 



Contents \i 

PAGE 

Compton Wynyates .... Miss Alice Dryden 255 

Situated in Warwickshire, and is one of the seats of the Marquis 
of Northampton. The surname of the family is Compton, which 
was assumed from the ancient Lordship of Compton. The present 
house was built about the beginning of the sixteenth century. 

Naworth Castle A. H. Malan 283 

Situated in Cumberland, and is one of the seats of the Earl ot Carlisle. 
Came into the family in 1603 through the marriage of Lord William 
Howard — the "Belted Will" of Scott — with Elizabeth, sister and 
co-heir of George, Lord Dacre. Prior to that time it was the home 
of the Dacre family. It is situated in most picturesque country, 
and is the scene of Sir Walter Scott 's love-making. The rooms of 
Lord William are still intact. 

Inveraray A. H. Malan 107 

Situated in Argyleshire, in the heart of the western Highlands. One 
of the seats of the Dukes of Argyle, and is therefore the residence of 
the present Duchess, the Princess Louise. It has been the home of the 
Chiefs of the Campbell Clan for centuries. It is especially notable 
for its fine timber, and is easily accessible from Glasgow in the 
summer months. The Castle itself is comparatively modern. The 
scenery in the vicinity exceedingly fine. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 



Compton Wynyates, from the Southeast 

Blickling Hall 

The West Front .... 

The South Front and Flower Garden 

A Corner of the Lake . 

The Moat and Bridge . 

The Morning Room 

Portico of the South Front 

Lady Lothian's Sanctum 

The Main Staircase 

The South Drawing-Room 

The Library, showing Ornate Ceiling 

The Library, containing 12,000 Volumes .... 

Some of the Effects of Anne Boleyn, preserved at Blickling 

Hall 

Tapestry representing Peter the Great and the Battle of 

Pultowa. 

White Polled Cattle, descended from the Wild Cattle of 

Britain 

The Flower Garden 



Knole and its Memories 



Green Court . 



3 

6 

7 

9 
1 1 

14 
15 
•7 
19 

21 

23 



The Porter's Lodge 



27 

28 



33 
34 



XIV 



Illustrations 



The Chapel-Room 

The Stone Court . 

Green Court . 

The Painted Staircase . 

The Great Hall 

A Corner of the Ballroom 

The King's Room ; also called the Silver Room 

The Spangle Room 

King James the First's Chair . . . 

The Brown Gallery, containing Portraits of Famous Men of 

the Sixteenth Century .... 
The Cartoon Gallery, containing Copies of the Famous 

Raphael Cartoons ...... 

Cotehele 

The Eastern Wing (Summer) 

The Eastern Wing (Winter) . 

The South, or Guard, Tower 

Porch of the Guard Tower . 

South Front . 

West Side of the Quadrangle 

The Iron Hand 

Retainers' Court, showing Arrow 

A Corner of the Hall 

The Hall, showing Fireplace . 

George, Third Lord Edgcumbe, died 1795 

After Reynolds. 

Lady Edgcumbe 

After Reynolds. 
View of the Chapel, showing East Window 
A Corner of the Dining-Room 
Kino; Charles's Room . - 



Slit at Side of Doorway 



35 
36 

37 
39 

41 

43 

45 

47 
48 

49 

51 



59 
61 
63 
64 
65 

07 
08 

69 

7> 
73 

75 

76 

77 
79 

81 



11 [lustrations 



XV 



The Old Withdrawing-Room .... 

Ancient Steel Mirror 

Ancient Silver Plate, showing Great Saltcellar 
Ancient Irish Horns, etc., in the Hall 

Glamis 
The Main Front 

From a Photograph by Valentine Sons. Dundee. 

" Malcolm's Stone," in the Garden of Glamis Manse 
The Crypt 

Formerly the Retainers' Hall. 
Room in which King Malcolm II. died, A.D. 1014 
The Spiral Staircase, seen from the Crypt 
A Corner of the Crypt 
The Dining-Room. . ... 

From a Photograph by Valentine Sons. Dundee. 
The Drawing-Room . . . . 

Former/v the Banqueting Hall. 

The " Lion of Glamis" Cup . 
Sword of " King James VIII." 
Glamis Castle, from the North-West . 

The Chapel 

Patrick, Lord Glamis, A.D. 1000 . 
Elizabeth, Countess of Strathmore, A.D. 1700 
Helen, Countess of Strathmore, A.D. 1072 . 
Charles Lord Lyon, A.D. 171 5 

Claverhouse's Coat 

The Sunk Garden 

The Great Sun-Dial 

Castle of Glamis in 1686 .... 

From a Painting in the Castle. 

Glamis Castle in 1730 

From an Old Print. 

The Front Door 



83 

Ss 

87 
8q 



9^ 

94 
95 

96 
96 

97 
99 

101 

102 
10; 
105 
107 
108 
108 
109 
109 

1 10 

1 1 1 

1 12 
113 

H5 

117 



xvi Illustrations 

Levens Hall 

Front View 

Levens Bridge 

Levens Hall 

The Hall, with Arms of Queen Elizabeth over the Fireplace 
The Dining-Room 

Formerly called the " Gilded Parlour. " 

The Drawing-Room, showing Old Oak Panelling. 

Mrs. Bagot's Room 

Chimney piece in Drawing-Room 

The "Yellow Room" . 

The Servants" Hall. 

The Gardens .... 

View of the Hall from the Gardens 

Mount Edgcumbe 

The East Front 

In the Italian Garden 

The Italian Garden, showing some of the Famous Orange 

Trees 

Barn Pool, from the Entrance to the Lower Gardens 

The Old Hall or Saloon 

The Drawing-Room or " Gallery " 

View of Plymouth and Drake's Island . 

Looking Seaward from the Deer-Park . 

The Hamoaze, from the Park .... 

View from the Front Door on a " Public " Day 



PAGE 

121 
122 
121 

127 

I2Q 

'3' 

133 
135 

137 
139 

141 

143 



149 
151 

'55 

157 

159 
[63 
165 

167 
169 

171 



Wilton House 



The Entrance Gates 
The West Front . 
The " Double Cube 



Room 



177 
179 

181 



Illustrations 



XVll 



The " Holbein " Front . 

The Corner Room. 

The Great Van Dyck in the " Double Cube ' 

The " Single Cube " Room . 

Another View of the " Single Cube " Room 

The Palladian Bridge, over the River Nadder 

The Colonnade Room .... 

The Cloisters 

The Cloisters 

Sitting Room of the Countess of Pembroke 
The Library . 
People at Cards . 

By Lucas Van Leyden. 

The Lawn 

The Holbein Porch 

Formerly the Main En/ranee to Wilton House 

The Italian Garden 



Room 



182 
183 
184 

.85 

■87 
188 
189 
191 
192 
193 
195 
196 

197 
199 

201 



Longleat 



The East and North Fronts . 










205 


Sir John Thynne 






206 


Longleat 






207 


The Hall, showing Armour and Hunting Scenes 






21 1 


The Hall, showing Screen with Carved Shields 






213 


Lady Louisa Carteret 






214 


The Corridor 










21s 


Mary Villiers, Lady Thynne . 










210 


The Library 










217 


The Drawing-Room 










21Q 


The Long Gallery 










222 


The State Dining-Room 










223 


The Long Gallery, showing Fireplace 










224 



XV111 



Illustrations 



The Old Library 

For Twenty Years the Study of Bishop Ken. 
The Winter Garden .... 
Longleat from the Lake. 
"Heaven's Gate" 

View from the Ridge. 

Rufford Abbey 

Rnfford Abbey .... 
The Brick Hall .... 

The Ancient Banqueting Hall. 
The Picture Gallery 

Rufford Hall 

The Grand Staircase 

The Chapel 

The Servants' Hall ; The Old Crypt of the Abbey 
View of the Abbey from the Lake . 
View of the Abbey from the Lawn 



Compton Wynyates 



The West Front 

The North Front 

Spencer Compton, Earl of Northampton 

From the Engraving in Lodge's " Portraits." 
South-West Angle and Garden 
The South and West Fronts .... 
The Porch, showing Arms of Henry VIII. 

A View in the Court 

The Porch from Inside of the Court 

Interior of the Court, showing the Twisted Chimneys 

The Minstrels' Gallery 

Carving over the Drawing-Room Fireplace, brought 
Canonbury House 



225 

227 
229 
231 





• 215 




• 237 




• 239 




. 241 




• M5 




• 247 




• 249 




• 251 




• 253 


. . 


• 257 


. 


. 259 


• 


. 260 




. 26l 


. 


. 263 


. 


. 265 




. 267 


. 


. 268 


leys . 


. 269 


. 


. 272 



from 



275 



Illustrations 



XIX 



The Drawing- Room, showing Panelling from Canonbury 

House 277 

Carved Door 278 

A Corner in the Council-Room 280 

Naworth Castle 



Gateway and Dacre Tower from the Garden 






28=, 


The Gateway with Dacre Shield . 






287 


Interior of Court 






289 


The Hall 






291 


Lord William Howard's Armour . 






292 


Howard Miniatures 






293 


Mabuse's " Adoration " .... 






294 


The Library 






295 


The Chapel as it was before the Fire . 






295 


From a Water-Colour Drawing. 








Warder's Turret on Dacre Tower 






. 296 


The Corridor 






297 


Bust and Portrait of the Earl of Carlisle. 






2Q8 


From the West - 






299 


On the Irthing 






300 


Lanercost Priory, near Naworth Castle 






301 


Another View of Lanercost Priory . 






302 


Recently Excavated Roman Camp, near Naworth Castle 


303 


Inveraray Castle 


Inveraray Castle 309 


A Street in Inveraray Town 






310 


Inveraray Castle 






311 


Inveraray Castle from Above 






315 


A Corner of the Hall 






317 


The Hall from Above 






318 



XX 



Illustrations 



Arms in the Hall 

The Saloon 

Another Aspect of the Saloon .... 

Small Drawing-Room 

Scotch Fir, 125 Feet High 

Beech Avenue leading to Dhu Loch 

Dundarawe Castle 

View of Loch Awe and Cruachan, from above Cladich 
Inveraray Town from the South .... 

The Town Cross 

Carlonan Pool 

Inveraray Castle from Dun-a-quoich Hill 
Ruined Chapel. Pass of Brander beyond . 



319 

321 

32} 
325 
326 

327 
328 
329 

33i 
3^2 
332 
33^ 
334 



BUckling Iball 



■ 



■ 







THE WEST FRONT OF BUCKLING HALL 



BUCKLING HALL 



BY A. H. MALAN 



THE Manor of Blickling can claim the honour of having 
afforded some sort of domicile — if it were but a one- 
storeyed shed — to Harold, Earl of East Anglia ; and of 
having been, if not the birthplace, at all events the usual place of 
abode, in her youthful years, of the luckless Anne Boleyn. 

The site of Harold's palace, still known as the Old Manor 
meadow, lies about a mile from the present Hall, in a pretty 
piece of rough pasture, not unlike a nook in the New Forest or 
a bit of Surrey common : and the disturbed surface of the ground 
seems to indicate that the foundations might still be unearthed, 
by anyone interested enough to set some spades to work with- 
out expecting any surprising discoveries. 

After Hastings, the Conqueror gave the manor to Bishop 



4 Blicfelina frnll 

Herfast, his chaplain ; and thenceforward it became a pleasant 
country retreat to the Bishops of Thetford, who continued to 
hold it for that purpose even after the see was transferred to 
Norwich. Then, after occupation by members of the families 
of Fitz-Roger, Engain, and De Holveston, in the latter part of 
the fourteenth century a portion of the manor came into pos- 
session of Sir Nicholas Dagworth, who, after a stirring life of 
public service in Brittany, France, and Ireland, built himself a 
residence thereon, of which nothing is now known except that 
it was surrounded by a moat with a portcullis. 

Presently there succeeded Sir Thomas de Erpingham, that 
fine old knight, for whose good white head, at Agincourt, Henry 
V. considered a good soft pillow were better than a churlish turf 
of France. He came over with Bolingbroke from Bretagne, and 
was Warden of Dover Castle, where his arms are said to be still 
visible on the side of the Roman pluros. The Erpingham gate, 
leading into the close at Norwich, was built by Sir Thomas ; also 
the tower of Erpingham church. Then there followed Sir John 
Fastolfe, who in turn sold the estate, circa 1459, to Sir Geoffrey 
Boleyn, mercer, and Lord Mayor of London, whose grandson, 
created by Henry VIII. Viscount Rochfort, was the father of 
Anne, and while in residence at Blickling was apprised of the 
beheading of his two children. He was succeeded, it appears, 
by Sir James Boleyn, great-uncle to Elizabeth ; and from him 
the property passed to Sir John Clere of Ormesby, whose spend- 
thrift heir was forced to sell it, and met with a purchaser in Sir 
Henry Hobart, grandson of the Attorney-General of Henry VII. 

This is but a scrappy outline of the early history, but suffi- 
cient : an article for the general reader being hardly the place for 
long genealogical extracts from those voluminous tomes, the old 
county histories. It brings us down to the beginning of the 
seventeenth century ; at which time Dagworth Manor Hall was 




THE SOUTH FRONT ANO FLOWER GARDEN, BUCKLING. HALL 



6 Blicfclino 1ball 

demolished, to make way for the mansion as one now sees it. 
This was begun by Sir Henry, 1619, and completed by his son, 
John, in 1028; the latter, from receiving Charles II. here, gave 
occasion to Stephenson's couplet : 

" Blickling two monarchs and two queens has seen ; 
One King fetch'd thence, another brought a Queen." 

The striking resemblance of the south front to the central 




A CORNER OF THE LAKE 



part of one of the fronts of Hatfield is accounted for by the sup- 
position that the same architect, Limminge, was the draughtsman 
of both. Approaching from Aylsham, along a road skirted on 
the right by the park, and on the left by a " loke " (Anglo-Saxon 
lor : a footpath separated from the road by a thorn-hedge), it is 
this front which shows itself first. At that distance the hall, 
wings, avenues, yew-hedges, and drive compose a scene of 
lordly formality, dignified and severe ; on a nearer approach the 
eye confines itself to the front only, and then the stone, 



8 Blicfelino 1ball 

shield-bearing figures, perforated parapet of the bridge, well pro- 
portioned windows, decorated white porch of Roman outline, dark 
oak door and quaint iron knocker, together make a picture pleas- 
ant to gaze on, whether viewed directly or obliquely from either 
side. There may be noticed, on the Portico, grouped around the 
arms of Hobart (and of Hobart impaling Bell, and Hobart and 
Sidney), several examples of the canting arms of Boleyn : a 
graceful compliment to the previous owners of the soil on Sir 
Henry's part, since it is not apparent that he was any connection 
of the Boleyn clan. 

Looking over the bridge down into the moat, it seems rather 
incongruous to observe golden polyanthuses and well-mown 
grass where water should be, and soft-billed birds regaling them- 
selves on the legitimate prey of eels ; but it is not easy to say 
what else should be done with a moat that has lost its rjisou- 
d 'etre. Possibly, as light against dark counts for so much in all 
ornamental gardening, and as there is such a ubiquitous spread 
of turf elsewhere, a flooring of white crushed spar might be 
more effective, as a line of demarcation between the dull red of 
the house and the dingy ivy-clad wall of the moat. A matter 
of opinion. 

To the right, through a curtain-arcade, is a short cut to the 
flower garden, that has been evolved, in recent times, from that 
" elegant wilderness" which Blomefield specified as being one of 
those attractions of the place "well worthy of the attention of 
such as make the Norfolk tour." With its gorgeous display 
of spring bloom, it is a fair enough Eden to walk in, in the cool 
of the day, when the breeze has died down at sunset, and all is 
still ; when the mellow and spirited snatches of blackbirds and 
thrushes are the only sounds audible, save the brusque, muffled 
callings of some restless cuckoo ; when the wallflowers are giving 
out their richest fragrance, and vie with auriculas and pansies in 



io BUcfclino Iball 

producing a perfect feast of colour, to delight and almost dazzle the 
eye. Alas, the bright April sunshine so soon scorches up all the 
primrose tribe, and mars the beauty of the beds, that one almost 
thinks a preferable way of displaying such flowers would be as 
a ring just around the foot of a tree on a lawn ; the semi-shade 
in which they are thus grown considerably prolonging the bloom, 
and the rising ground at the base of the tree-trunks being so well 
out of the way of the mowing-machine that the lawn can be 
kept mown, and yet the flowers allowed to die down in peace. 
This method of culture is very extensively and prettily practised 
at Belton, the Lincolnshire home of Lady Lothian's sister ; where 
also may be noted large breadths and strips of Lent lilies at the 
lake-edge, and a profusion of narcissi forming natural borderings 
to shrubberies, such as are to be found here, studded about on 
the grass, in among the specimen trees beyond this garden. 

Of these trees, an oriental plane, computed to be two hund- 
red years old, is particularly noticeable ; the more so when, not 
being in leaf, its anatomy can be observed. At considerable 
spread from the trunk the pendulous limbs have long ago estab- 
lished themselves as almost independent saplings ; the modus 
operandi being that when a branch, through its drooping habit, 
touches the ground, presently it begins to ascend, thus forming 
an elbow ; then, on being swayed by the wind, this elbow frets 
away the soil into a hollow, at the same time forming a callosity 
on its bark, and one fine day it manages to stick in its bed and 
protrude roots, and so become a fixture. In this case, the parent 
stem being still full of vitality, the whole operation is visible ; but 
in the lime-walk, hard by, another method of reproduction pre- 
sents itself, where clumps of young limes, apparently planted in 
a circle, stand up like the pillars of a miniature temple of Vesta, 
and have really arisen as suckers, at the base of a perished 
ancestor's trunk, of which not the smallest trace survives. 



A stroll along the lake-side brings yon to a noble group of 
beeches, beyond some fine oaks ; in fact, the oaks throughout 
the park are everywhere good and abundant, in spite of a lament- 
able gale which not long ago swept down hundreds. Should 
you think fit to prolong the stroll round the lake, and turn 
southward, you will come across some delightful glades, where 
beeches and birches of silvery stem and delicate leafage, growing 
at their own sweet will, well show what Nature will do when 
left to herself; while what can be done when she is not left to 
herself may be seen in the avenues of pollard limes, running 
parallel with the offices flanking the Hall, that have been lopped 
and trimmed till their resentment has evidently been aroused. 

When the mood of man is merry, these little glades (as Lady 
Suffield's cottage in the wood testifies) serve admirably for pic- 
nics and other simple country joys ; but the mood is not always 
merry, and if a place be wanted to be wretched in, then you 
might wend your way to the pyramidal mausoleum, circum- 
scribed by darkest spruces and a forbidding fence ; of sombre and 
depressing aspect, and shunned by all things living, except, it 
may be, one or two of those long-eared owls which delight in 
densest shade. It is the resting-place of the departed John, Earl 
of Buckinghamshire : far indeed from one's idea of a beautiful 
burial-place, such as (to give an example) the Tomnahurich cem- 
etery at Inverness. 

Let us attack the house from the Porch. The " curious brick 
fabric," built as it was by a Hobart, is thought to be in the form 
of an H : no unreasonable supposition, if the end-pieces be con- 
nected, and the letter formed of such " solid " type as to leave little 
space (the courts) on either side of the central span. The arch- 
way passed, the first small court crossed, and the Hall entered, 
on the right lies the Dining-room, panelled and over-mantelled in 
chestnut, but not calling for further description than that it 




15 



i6 BlicfclinQ Iball 

contains a good fireplace, surmounted by arms. Next, the Break- 
fast-room, where, as in the other sitting-rooms, are several of the 
water-colour sketches of the late Lady Waterford, aunt to the 
lady of the house. These are recognised by a peculiar boldness 
of touch and outline, and comprise a variety of figure-subjects. 
The artist evidently used to advantage the abundance of time at 
her disposal, at Curraghmore, while her lord, the third Marquis, 
was engaged in his " everlasting hunting." Possessed of a power 
of expressing her ideas in a few masterly strokes, her sketches 
(like these articles on historic houses) are "thoughts and impres- 
sions, rather than finished pictures." No body-colour is seen in 
any of her work. 

The Morning-room, next door, has a highly finished ceiling ; 
also a stone chimneypiece originally forming the arch of a win- 
dow at Caistor Castle, the residence of that reputed "craven," 
Sir John Fastolfe, who, at the battle of Patay, "before a stroke 
was given, like to a trusty squire, did run away." Sir John is 
said by Hall to have been degraded for cowardice ; but Heylin, in 
his History of St. George, tells us that "he was afterwards, upon 
good reason by him alledged in his defence, restored to his 
honour." Skipping two bedrooms, one arrives at Lady Lothian's 
sanctum, where may be seen the daintiest of English and Dresden 
china, set off against a black oak mantelpiece, some arras hang- 
ings from the Orford sale, and everything else which a boudoir in 
the best possible taste should possess. Situated at the north- 
east angle on the ground floor there is a convenient exit (behind 
the tapestry) direct into the garden ; another door, opposite, 
leads into the deserted study of the eighth Marquis, whose life, 
of the highest mental promise, was so prematurely cut short 
in 1870. 

From this point it is possible to continue your course, east 
and south, until you get back to the right of the Porch ; when, 



1 8 MicfelitiQ 1ball 

if so minded, you can proceed, by a subterranean passage, to the 
kitchens, etc., which are detached from the house itself, and are 
supposed to be the successors of some previous almshouses. 

But we will ascend the main staircase instead. It is a 
double-headed stairs having dark oak balusters, coeval with the 
house, but with figures thereupon placed here by the Earl of 
Buckinghamshire, 1765, because, of the original figures, " Hector 
had lost his spear, David his harp, Godfrey of Boulogne his ears, 
Alexander his shoulder." In canopies in the wall are statues, of 
the Georgian epoch, of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth. The win- 
dows (one stained glass), opening into the small courts, give by 
no means sufficient light to show off the Hall to advantage. The 
pictures are mostly by Aikman. At the top we enter a small 
apartment over the Breakfast-room, where Abraham and Sarai 
and Lot, with swarthy Eastern mien, look out from the old tap- 
estry, not upon a city of the plain, but upon the less notorious, 
if anachronistic, plane of a billiard-table. On one side of this Bil- 
liard-room is the south Drawing-room, with an extremely ornate 
ceiling and chimneypiece of the period ; with ottomans, and 
sofas, and chairs upholstered in yellow silk ; an ebony suite, 
china, mirrors, etc. ; the pictures comprising a portrait of Eliza- 
beth (and a doubtful Mary Tudor), George III. and Queen Char- 
lotte, Sir Robert Walpole, Lord Townshend, and that Lady 
Suffolk (Aikman) whom Scott introduces in the Heart of Mid- 
lothian. On the other side is the Library, a hundred and 
twenty-seven feet long, with an elaborate ceiling, showing, in 
relief, all down its length, three rows of emblematical figures 
with an expansive range of subject, from a woman riding a griffin 
to the world's conflagration. Arranged around the walls are the 
twelve thousand volumes of the famous Blickling Library, got 
together by Mattaire for Sir Richard Ellis, from whom they were 
inherited by the owner of Blickling. The rarest books and 




THE LIBRARY, BUCKLING HALL, SHOWING ORNATE CEILING. 



'9 



22 Blicklino Iball 

missals are very properly under lock and key ; amongst them 
one is allowed to inspect the following : 

The first printed Latin Bible, 1402, the concluding sentence 
of which may be translated thus : "This work was made by the 
artificial invention of printing, or characterising without the use 
of the pen, in the town of Moguntium [Mayence] to the piety of 
God, by the industry of John Fust, citizen, and Peter Schwiffher, 
clerk, and is finished in the vigil of . . . " ; 

"The Blickling MS.": a collection of original homilies in 
Anglo-Saxon, dated Q71, with some seventeenth-century scrib- 
lings, apparently by members of the Lincoln Chapter ; 

Three books of Hours, fifteenth century, with bright illumin- 
ated headings and tailpieces, and quaint little coloured pictures, 
more or less borrowed from the Bestiaries ; 

A French MS. Bible, thirteenth century ; a Latin MS. Psalter, 
said to be a thousand years old, with synonyms above certain 
words, in Anglo-Saxon characters ; 

Two works of Caxton ; the rare edition of Coverdale's Bible, 
is^s ; the Prayer Book proposed for Scotland; a collection of 
nursery rhymes, in Hebrew, based upon the vicissitudes of the 
great nations ; and Aldine publications from 14Q0 to 1590. 

There is also an old Latin MS. Bible of uncertain date, on a 
page of which appears the autograph of the Duke of Wellington, 
18 19, and of the Princess of Wales, 1888. 

The adjoining room is a sort of State Drawing-room, con- 
taining two Gainsboroughs (the second Earl of Buckinghamshire 
and his Countess), and a large piece of tapestry, in the highest 
relief, presented by the Empress Catharine to that Earl when he 
was Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Here, in a cabinet, away 
from public gaze, are carefully stored some of the effects of Anne 
Boleyn, recently shown at a Tudor Collection. They consist of 
some long strips of the thinnest gauze or gossamer, delicate, soft, 




23 



24 Blicfclino 1ball 

and flimsy, with flowers thereon worked by hand ; the toilet- 
case (showing small relief portraits of Henry VIII. and Anne 
Boleyn), with mirror, brushes, combs, depilatories, unguentarium, 
etc. ; a sort of morning-gown or dressing-gown, and a set of 
nightcaps. The latter seem over-extensive for a small head ; but 
perhaps they were "worn large," like the former straw hats of 
the Norfolk peasantry, as appears from a specimen in the attics, 
of build as massive as a beehive, and weighing no less than two 
pounds seven ounces. 

Grouping for such a photograph is not an unpleasant task : 
in fact, grouping becomes essential to save time, especially with 
oil paintings. Thus, in taking the tapestry afore-mentioned — 
where the smirk on Peter the Great's countenance so aggravat- 
ingly diverts the eye from the more artistic battle of Pultowa in 
the background — quite an array of pictures connected with the 
House could be put together and worked in. Of these, to the right, 
first comes the Countess of Buckinghamshire and her daughter 
Caroline, Lady Suftield, who, as a stone let into the west wall of 
the house relates, " bequeathed her jewels towards the expense 
of erecting this front, MDCCLX1X."' "Next, the Ambassador's 
eldest daughter, who wedded the sixth Marquis of Lothian, and 
brought Blickling into the present family. Then Sir Henry 
Hobart, Lord Chief Justice, who built the house in 1619, wearing 
the SS. chain ; then Sir James Hobart, Attorney-General to Henry 
VII. — "a right good man of great learning and wisdom," who, 
in 1495, built Loddon church, from the east window in which 
the picture is copied, showing the kneeling figures of Sir James 
and his wife, — the tower of Loddon church on one side, a bridge 
over the Waveney on the other ; and of which picture the 
inscription translated runs: "Pray for the soul of James Hobart, 
Knight, and Attorney to the Lord King, who built this church 
entirely from its foundation in three years out of his own goods, 




= 5 



26 BUckling Iball 

in the eleventh year of King Henry." Lastly, Lady Londonderry, 
another daughter of the Ambassador, and a wife of the minister 
best known as Viscount Castlereagh. 

Beyond is the room occupied by George III., with watered 
silk facings to the walls, a bed in an alcove, and a cot for a page. 
It is situated at the north-west angle, and by proceeding thence, 
past some bedroom doors severally lettered L-o-t-h-i-a-n, and so 
known as the Lothian Row, and round through some south bed- 
rooms, the Drawing-room, with which we began, is once more 
reached, and the circumambulation is complete. In the bedroom 
over the porch there is a truly marvellous bedstead, without any 
foot posts, but making up for the deficiency by being equipped 
with a surrounding curtain, actuated by cords and a wheel, 
which can be caused to descend from the canopy above in one 
fell swoop upon the inmates, hermetically sealing them from all 
external air ; and, as though such imprisonment were insufficient, 
there is a longitudinal descendable curtain as well, passing down 
between the divided mattress, thereby creating two cubicles: 
surely the happy thought of some sorely tried Mr. — why not 
Mrs. ? — Caudle. 

Before quitting the Hall acknowledgment is due to a schol- 
arly guide-book by Canon Meyrick, which has been drawn upon 
in this article. Visitors are fortunate if they may be able to pro- 
cure a copy in advance, before they go the round of the rooms on 
that particular week-day throughout the summer when the house 
is courteously thrown open to their inspection. 

On our way up to the church we can get through the left- 
hand block of offices into the dairy-yard, in order to see a herd of 
white polled cattle to be found there at milking-time. They are 
some of the last lingering descendants of what is said to be a 
unique breed of the wild cattle of Britain, and are characterised 
by black muzzles, ears, and hoofs, short legs, straight backs ; the 




27 



28 



BlichUno Iball 



skulls also are different in some respects from those of domestic 
breeds. The cows are said to be bad milkers ; but that is of little 
consequence, as when grazing together among the trees in the 
park they look picturesque enough to make up for all shortcom- 
ings. The previous lord of the herd was a high-spirited, not to 
say savage animal, worthy of his illustrious ancestry, with a 
matter-of-fact way of doing business — promptly knocking any 




THE FLOWER GARDEN 



one down against whom he was incensed, and then kneeling on 
him, lest the prostrate foe should attempt to get up. But the 
present bull is a very degenerate offshoot of Caesar's urns, and 
it is difficult to believe he represents a race "of enormous 
strength and speed, which neither spare man nor beast when 
once they have caught sight of him. - ' Nature, if not in-and-in 
breeding, has made him a queer sort of hirsute monster, much 
undersized for a bull, but (given a pair of tusks) not doing at all 



Blicftling Iball 29 

badly, as to his forequarters, for a primeval boar. The creature 
takes life calmly enough, except upon sight of a bovine stranger 
in the offing, when he stands at gaze, and challenges the uni- 
verse in a hoarse, gruff roar. 

Unfortunately, the parish church has lost much of whatever 
original individuality it may have possessed, through that modern 
restoration which tends to reduce our churches to one dead level 
of uniformity ; but it contains the brass of Sir Nicholas Dag- 
worth, who died in 1401 ; several brasses of the Boleyn family, 
in excellent preservation ; an altar-tomb of the Cleres ; the monu- 
ment (Watts) of the eighth Marquis of Lothian, with two angels, 
the one at the head, the other at the feet ; and a massive oak 
chest {circa 1490), armoured with carvel-built iron plates, the 
ponderous cover, or lid, of which no two men can lift. The 
chest bears an inscription running along the front — " Maystyr 
Adam llee mad ys chyst and Robert Filipis payed yer for, God 
have mercy on yar soules." Near to it is the fine font, with lions 
sejant on bowl and base ; it has an old appearance, but is reputed 
to be comparatively modern. 

The golf-links are approached by entering the park from past 
the inn — and past, also, an ideal English hamlet, with delightful 
little flower gardens and miniature orchards, backed by well 
grown forest trees. And properly to appreciate this most pic- 
turesque village, the inhabitants should have sojourned awhile 
in some desolate mining region, where trees are rare and stunted, 
and nature is represented by a few scraggy pot-plants, peeping 
out from monotonous rows of windows, in some long, unlovely 
street. 



IRnole anb its Memories 



31 




If ' >W; 



^ r~ - 






:.7j>-- 









GREEN COURT, KNOLE 



KNOLE AND ITS MEMORIES 

BY LORD SACKVILLE 

THE first authentic record of the occupancy of Knole is to 
be found in the reign of King John, when it belonged to 
William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke ; but in the time 
of Henry III. we find it in the possession of the family of Say 
and Sele, where it remained until Sir William Fiennes, Lord Say 
and Sele, being deeply involved in the contentions between the 
Houses of York and Lancaster, was obliged to sell the greater part 
of his possessions. Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, bought Knole for a sum equal to ,£2500 of our money, 
rebuilt the house and enclosed it in a park, bequeathing it at his 
death (i486) to the See of Canterbury. There can be little doubt 
that it was Archbishop Bourchier who built the greater part of 
the present house, although there are portions the architecture 
of which seems to indicate an earlier origin. Bourchier's Chapel, 

the beautiful oriel window of which is one of the chief features 

33 



34 



Iknole anfc its flDemortes 



of the Green Court, contains his device, the " Bourchier-knot," 
carved on one of the stone corbels, while his arms are found in 
another room of the house. His immediate successor, John 
Moreton, lived much at Knole from i486 to isoo, and was visited 

there by Henry 
VII. Knole con- 
tinued to be the 
private residence 
of the Archbish- 
ops until the time 
of Thomas Cran- 
mer — who lived 
there seven years, 
and whose arms 
are found on five 
shields, in a room 
still called Cran- 
mer's R o o m. 
Finding that the 
vast possessions 
of the Church ex- 
cited envy, Cran- 
mer resolved to 




7\ ykjh A^n 



THE PORTER'S LODGE 



give it up to Henry VIII., who is said to have determined to make 
it a royal residence, but never carried out that intention. 

Queen Mary granted the manor-house and lands of Knole 
to Cardinal Pole, at whose death, in 1558, they passed again into 
the hands of the Crown. Then Elizabeth made Knole over to 
her favourite, Dudley, who left behind a trace of ownership in 
the " Leicester Gallery " before surrendering it back to her ; after 
which the Queen granted it to her cousin, Thomas Sackville, 
whose grandmother was a Boleyn ; she also created him Baron 






|h| 







^yss 



THE CHAPEL-ROOM, KNOLE 



35 



36 



Iknolc ano its memories 




Buckhurst, which title he took from his estates in Sussex, and 
appointed him Lord High Treasurer ; her motive in giving him 
Knole being, according to several publications, "to keep him 
near her Court and Councils, that he might repair thither on any 

e m e r g e n c y with 
more expedition 
than he could from 
his seat of Buck- 
hurst, in Sussex, the 
roads in w h i c h 
county were at 
times impassable." 

Thomas Sack- 
ville. Lord Buck- 
hurst, is celebrated 
as the author of 
Gorboduc, the first 
dramatic piece of 
any note in English 
- verse, which was 
performed before 
Queen Elizabeth at 
Whitehall many 
years before any of Shakespeare's plays had been written. 
He made Knole his principal residence, and did much to the 
house ; the old leaden water-spouts in the Stone Court, still 
in use, bear his initials and the date 1603 ; his chest as High 
Treasurer is to be seen in the Cartoon Gallery. He was made 
Earl of Dorset by James I., and Knole has remained in the Sack- 
ville family since his time. The present owner is the son of 
Lady Elizabeth Sackville, who, by the death of her brother, the 
fourth Duke of Dorset, became sole heiress of Knole ; she 







THE STONE COURT 




37 




26~^jJ&^£t: 



THE PAINTED STAIRCASE, KNOLE 



39 



40 Iknolc ant) its fIDemones 

married the fifth Earl De La Warr, and at her death left Knole by- 
special remainder to her younger sons. Queen Victoria revived 
the title of Sackville in favour of Lady De La W:irr's second sur- 
viving son in 1876. 

The house of Knole, skirted on one side by the town of 
Sevenoaks, stands in a beautifully wooded park of a thousand 
acres, which, with its remarkably fine beech-trees and undulating 
ground, forming beautiful glades and valleys, may well be classed 
amongst the best of our English parks. 

Round the house are the gardens and shrubberies, the whole 
being enclosed by an old stone wall, in which there are some 
very fine wrought-iron gates of Queen Anne's period ; while the 
gardens are laid out in the old-fashioned way, with quaint 
borders and grass walks. 

An idea of the great size of the house may be gained by the 
fact that it covers nearly four acres of ground, and contains 365 
rooms, 52 staircases, and S40 windows. It is built of the grey 
stone known as "Kentish Rag," and is roofed with picturesque 
dark red tiles ; the whole pile, with its numberless chimneys and 
gables, giving more the impression, at a distance, of part of an 
old mediaeval town than of a private dwelling-house. The prin- 
cipal entrance is by two massive oak doors under a square tower, 
and the visitor finds himself in the largest of the seven courts 
round which the house is built. Directly opposite is Bourchier's 
graceful oriel window. Through another arched porch and oak 
doors there is the Stone Court (rather smaller than the first, or 
Green Court, but quite as picturesque in its old-world appear- 
ance), from which there is the door leading into the Great Hall. 
This Hall, measuring 7s feet in length, 10 in width, and 20 in 
height, with a raised dais at one end and an oak screen boldly 
carved with the Sackville arms at the other end, was the old 
Banqueting Hall. The small panels in the upper part of this 




THE GREAT HALL, KNOLE 

THE ANCIENT BANQUETING HALL 



4' 




Re^^iJ&B^-: 



A CORNER OF THE BALLROOM, KNOLE 



43 



44 Iknole anfc its flDemories 

screen open and form windows looking down into the Hall. 
Here are several pictures, the most interesting of which is a por- 
trait of the three brothers Coligny, by Porbus. Along the walls 
are hung the various patents granted to the family from the time 
of Elizabeth ; some of them beautifully illuminated, with portraits 
of Elizabeth, James 1., Charles II., etc. 

Leaving the Hall, visitors ascend the principal staircase, and 
enter the Ballroom, which contains a complete collection of the 
portraits of the owners of Knole since the time of Queen Eliza- 
beth ; amongst others a very striking picture of Edward Sackville, 
fourth Earl of Dorset, by Van Dyck. The room is panelled with 
oak painted white, and has a broad carved oak frieze running 
round the top ; there is also a very fine Renaissance fireplace and 
a Sevres service presented by Napoleon I. 

A short passage leads into the Reynolds Room, in which 
there are seventeen pictures by Sir Joshua, two by Gainsborough, 
and two very fine Hoppners — one a portrait of the last Duchess 
of Dorset, whose husband was the collector of the best pictures 
of that period now in the house. The fireplace, also of the Re- 
naissance period, contains two silver fire-dogs. 

Immediately opening out of this room is the Cartoon Gallery, 
so called from the copies of the famous Raphael cartoons, with 
which the walls are covered ; these copies were presented to the 
fourth Earl of Dorset by Charles I., by whose order they had been 
executed by Mytens, in order to give the King an idea of the 
originals when they were for sale. The windows in this Gallery, 
which is ninety feet long, contain twenty-one coats of arms in 
stained glass, showing the alliances of the Sackville family ; while 
the furniture, covered with old Genoa velvet, is especially beauti- 
ful, being all early seventeenth century, and well preserved : our 
ancestors were evidently not unmindful of the comfort of an arm- 
chair. At the far end, an oak door, enriched with gilt locks given 







THE KING'S ROOM ; ALSO CALLED THE SILVER ROOM 



45 



46 Iknole ant) its flDcmories 

by William III., leads into the King's Bedroom, so called from the 
bed and furniture having been bought for James l.'s reception. 
This room is also called the Silver Room, on account of the great 
profusion of silver displayed in it — viz., a large silver table, three 
looking-glasses, two high tripods, twenty-eight sconces, eighteen 
jars, and a complete toilet-set, which is said to be the most per- 
fect of the period. The bed itself is a large four-poster hung with 
rich gold and silver brocade, and is furnished with satin mat- 
tresses. The tapestry, representing the history of Nebuchadnez- 
zar, is very remarkable (similar hangings, but without borders, are 
in the billiard-room at Glamis Castle) ; and the whole room, as 
it stands to-day, is just as it was three centuries ago. 

On the other side of the Ballroom is the older portion of the 
house, which has not been touched since early Tudor times — a 
fact which is plainly visible in the rough-and-ready fashion in 
which the oak panelling has been put in. The first room in this 
part is the Chapel-room, which contains some old furniture, two 
quaint Dutch "dummy-board figures" used formerly as fire- 
screens, and a screen worked by Queen Elizabeth, the walls being 
hung with tapestry, and many of the window-panes tilled with 
talc, from which is obtained a glimpse of some quaint smaller 
courts. The Organ-room, which is next, derives its name from 
the curious old instrument which stands in it and bears the date 
1621. There are also in this room several "black-jacks" and cu- 
rious old wine-bottles found in the cellars. Passing on to the 
Brown Gallery, a curious collection of chairs and stools is to be 
seen, while on the walls is a long row of portraits representing all 
the famous men of the sixteenth century. These portraits are 
painted on panels, and have been thought to have been given 
with Knole by Elizabeth. Opening out of this gallery are two 
charming little rooms used in the last century by Lady Betty Ger- 
maine, who has filled them with samples of her needlework ; 




THE SPANGLE ROOM, KNOLE 



47 



48 



Iknole ant) its flDemones 



from the windows there is a lovely view of the gardens. Oppo- 
site, there is another state bedroom, the furniture in which was 
all given by James I. ; while beyond is the dressing-room belong- 
ingtoit, and, still farther on, the old Billiard-room, containinga bil- 
liard-table of the 
&& t i m e of Charles 

I., very much 
resembling o u r 
modern t a b 1 e s. 
This room is real- 
ly part of another 
long gallery, 
called the Leicesn' 
ter Gallery, full of 
more seven- 
teenth-century 
furniture, and of 
some excellent 
examples of Van 
Dyck's art ; con- 
taining, also, a 
la rge picture of 
James 1. (by My- 
tens), immediate- 
ly below which is the actual chair in which the King is represented 
as sitting. Close by is a curiously illuminated pedigree of the 
Sackville family (with small portraits of the more important mem- 
bers) from the Conquest to Elizabeth ; Herbrand de Sackeville 
having come over with William. At the end is a bedroom pre- 
pared for the reception of James II. : it is furnished with a table, 
two tripods, and two looking-glasses of ebony and silver ; the 
furniture is done up in green Genoa velvet. It is curious that in 




KING JAMES THE FIRST'S CHAIR 




^t*^" 



THE BROWN GALLERY, KNOLE, CONTAINING PORTRAITS OF FAMOUS MEN 
OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 



49 



50 Iknole anfc its flfecmories 

this room there is an " Adams " window and fireplace ; these be- 
ing the only examples of that period of decoration in the house. 

The chief objects of interest in the Chapel are some beautiful 
pieces of tapestry, and carved groups of saints in wood, repre- 
senting the procession to Calvary, over the altar, which were the 
property of Mary Queen of Scots, and were given by her to 
Thomas Sackville, first Earl of Dorset, as a farewell present and 
token of her appreciation of the tact he displayed in announcing 
to her the sad fact that his royal mistress, Queen Elizabeth, had 
passed sentence of death on her. 

Here the list of rooms shown to the public comes to an end. 
The private sitting-rooms now in use are all on the ground-floor, 
and are of a more modern appearance with regard to their de- 
coration and furniture ; though in the Colonnade-room there is 
another fine example of a Renaissance ceiling similar to that in 
the Cartoon Gallery and Ballroom. The Dining-room contains 
a well-carved open fireplace ; also an interesting collection of 
portraits of literary men and poets of the seventeenth and eight- 
eenth centuries, such as Dryden, Prior, Pope, Wycherley, Con- 
greve, Hobbes, Locke, and Addison ; and there is, besides, a 
picture of Charles, the sixth Earl, who loved to surround himself 
with the men of letters of his time, and was the author of some 
poems, and of the song, To all you ladies now on land, which 
was penned by him, in 1665, when a volunteer under the Duke 
of York, on the evening before the successful engagement against 
the Dutch fleet under Admiral Opham. It is of this Earl that the 
following story is told : At a certain party, at Knole, it was pro- 
posed that each guest should write an impromptu, and that Dry- 
den should decide which was the best. Those present, including 
the Earl of Dorset, having handed their contributions to the 
umpire, Dryden rose, and said that, having perused them all, he 
must give the palm to their host's, which ran as follows : "I 




THE CARTOON GALLERY, KNOLE, CONTAINING COPIES OF THE 
FAMOUS RAPHAEL CARTOONS 



51 



Iknole anfc its memories 53 

promise to pay Mr. John Dryden, or order, five hundred pounds 
on demand. Dorset." 

It was in this room that the Parliamentary Commissioners 
assembled, to order Knole's sequestration in consequence of the 
strong support rendered to the royal cause by the fourth Earl of 
Dorset, whose duel with Lord Bruce of Kinross is considered to 
have been the turning-point in the fashion of personal combat. 

In the other private rooms are a number of pictures and 
miniatures, and some bric-a-brac; the bedrooms have Sheraton 
and Chippendale furniture. 

I have attempted in the foregoing remarks to give an accur- 
ate, if somewhat sketchy, account of the chief objects of interest 
in the house, but I feel that my pen is incompetent to describe 
Knole as it should be described ; and yet it is not difficult to 
allow the mind to wander, and to attempt to repeople the 
past with the many celebrated men who have been there. 
Cranmer's and Bourchier's private chapels could surely tell us 
something more than we already know of their lives and 
prayers ; while the old Banqueting Hall must have witnessed 
many a scene of feasting and revelry on the occasion of a royal 
visit. It was here Sir Thomas More spent part of his boyhood 
as page in the household of Archbishop Moreton. Here must 
have come Leicester and Burleigh, and many a noble at the 
Court of Queen Elizabeth. Here also Dryden, D'Urfey, and Ed- 
mund Waller were guests ; while only a little more than a cent- 
ury ago Sir Joshua Reynolds painted at Knole several of the 
pictures still in the house for his friend, the Duke of Dorset. 



Cotebele 



55 







TT— 



/^ [eudaL l\\^ /|o^E 



BY A. H. MALAN 

AMONG the stately homes of Cornwall — whether remark- 
able for age or architecture, or (as more often) for beau- 
tiful grounds and semi-tropical gardens redeeming bare, 
barrack-like buildings — there is certainly nothing quite like Cote- 
hele. Situated just west of the Tamar, it is unique of its kind, 
and has a charm all its own. Inside and out it so speaks of 
antiquity and so carries back the mind to the past that, were 
some armoured knight suddenly to present himself in all his 
bravery, it would not seem a very strange thing ; though the 
correct method of saluting him would doubtless be rather a start- 
ling problem. 

The connection of the Edgcumbe family with this "mansion 
place " opens with romance. It was in the middle of the four- 
teenth century. Hillaria de Cotehele had become an heiress 
under age, through her father's death ; and John of Eltham 
claimed her wardship, in consequence of the family always hold- 
ing their lands from the Earls of Cornwall by knight service. 
This wardship he gave to his steward, who sold it to Maude de 

57 



58 (Cotebete 

Brendon : and upon the hitter's death it was uncertain who 
ought to administer it. Different claimants began wrangling, 
before the Black Prince's Council, as to who should be guardian, 
and whom the heiress ought to marry : but Hillaria. being a 
high-spirited young personage, over fourteen years of age. as- 
serted her woman's rights, proved her case, and married William 
of Eggecombe against all objections. A genuine love-match, 
this, on her part ; for the younger son of a small Devon squire 
could not have had much in possession to offer, either of real or 
personal property. Little more is recorded of the lady : there 
was one son. Peter : she enjoyed twenty-six years of wedded 
bliss : and when her husband departed, she appears to have 
found small difficulty in transferring her affections to another. 

Traces of the buildings of this date are seen in the west side 
of the quadrangle and elsewhere : the small round-headed win- 
dows showing the earliest existing work. But the greater part 
of the house, as it now stands, does not seem to have been 
begun until the time of that great-grandson of William and 
Hillaria who was destined to be such a notable character, albeit 
his career was tar from unchequered. 

This was Richard Eggecombe. who. in 140S. had so far 
raised himself above the status of his great-grandsire. that he 
was escheator for his country, and very much in the King's 
_ >d graces : but neither his high position, nor the royal smiles, 
could preserve him from being sadly molested by the owner of 
fortified Bere Ferrers, namely. Robert Willoughby. afterwards 
Lord Willoughby de Broke. There exists a curious document 
describing the iniuries and wrongs done by this bold, bad man 
to his neighbour of Cotehele : how "with "4 men. armed with 
jackes, salettes. and scythes, he lay in a wayte to have mordered 
and slayne him. and upon him made a saute " : and again. how- 
Robert "chasyd" Richard, so that he was forced "to lie dayly 




THE EASTERN WING, COTEHELE 

(summer* 



59 



60 dote be Ic 

and nyghtly in his wodys for safe garde of hys lyffe to the grete 
hurte and grefe of hys body" ; and yet again, how at "Tawy- 
stock " Robert and his men with "Jakkes, Saletts, trygenders, 
bowys, arws, Swerdys and byllys, made a great affray and a 
saute" upon Richard, who "was in hys bed nakyd safe hys 
shurt " : — and a good deal more to the same effect. 

But it is highly unfortunate that Willoughby's version of the 
affair is not preserved. For instance, it would be interesting to 
know whether there was any third person involved, and if so, 
who she was ; or whether these forays were simply a pastime, 
to exercise the varlets of Bere Ferrers and keep them up to the 
mark. Also the question arises why in the world, instead of 
taking it all so tamely, Richard did not marshal his retainers, and 
attack Willoughby. Anyhow, the dexterity and agility which 
Eggecombe acquired in hiding and running away were soon to 
prove of eminent service to him in more stirring scenes. In 
1481, he raised some Cornish troops, and went to join Bucking- 
ham^ plot against Richard 111. ; but that plot having failed before 
the western contingent joined the Duke's force, Richard and his 
merry men had to save themselves as best they could. And then 
it was that Eggecombe, being nearly run down in his own woods 
by some of the King's adherents under Sir Henry Trenowth, 
managed, under shelter of an overhanging rock, to throw his cap 
into the river ; so deceiving his pursuers, who supposed him 
drowned. Dropping down the Tamar, he escaped to Brittany ; 
and having, like other exiles, joined Henry of Richmond, landed 
with him at Milford, and was made Knight Banneret at Bos- 
worth. From this time his fortunes quickly improved. He was 
granted various manors for his prowess in the field, was made 
Comptroller of the King's Household, and Privy Councillor ; and, 
having learnt by this time how much nicer it is to pursue than to 
be pursued, he hunted down Trenowth, and after making him 




6i 



62 Cotebele 

jump for life at a cleft in the cliff near the Dodman, received for 
his exploit the confiscated estates of Bodrugan. In these ways he 
grew passing rich ; but the four remaining years of his life were 
so occupied in the King's service — in Scotland, Ireland, and 
Brittany — that he had little leisure to enjoy his good fortune in 
his own home. But it is supposed that it was he who copied 
the earlier example of Bere Ferrers, and began castellating and 
enlarging Cotehele ; providing some at least of that external 
granite work, which is so obviously of later construction than 
the smaller rubble masonry. This work, however, was more 
largely gone into by his son, Piers. For, after joining in the 
Holy Wars against Louis XII. of France, and being knighted at 
the Battle of the Spurs, Sir Piers seems to have spent most of 
his life at Cotehele, in spite of the tact that, by his first marriage 
with the heiress of James Durnford, he acquired the manor of 
Stonehouse, the future and more imposing residence of his 
descendants. 

It is unnecessary to follow the family history any further ; for 
that has rather to do with Mount Edgcumbe than with Cote- 
hele. The Virgin Queen sought one of her Maids of Honour in 
Margaret Edgcumbe, afterwards Lady Denny ; and she may have 
been thinking of that lady's brothers, when she said that the 
Cornish were all born courtiers ; though it is to be hoped her 
thoughts were not running in the same direction when she 
avowed, in one of her tantrums, as is reported, that the farther 
west she went, the more certain she felt that the Wise Men came 
from the East. 

Since, then, the patronage of Royalty has always been 
granted to the Mount Edgcumbes ; and that, apart from his 
Court duties, the present Earl has long enjoyed the friendship of 
our Royal Family, the autograph book at Cotehele could very 
easily show, were no other evidence available. 




63 



6 4 



Cotcbcle 



Approaching from Hingston Down southwards, the private 
road first brings in sight a gaunt, solitary tower, which looks 
as if it ought to have kept watch and ward over the country 
round, but is considered to be only a "folly"; then presents a 

glimpse of the bat- 
tlemented towers 
and Chapel bellcote, 
vignetted a m i d a 
tangle of el m - 
branches; and then, 
sweeping round in a 
sharp curve, passes 
in front of the east- 
ern facade. Perched 
at the head of an 
abrupt ravine nar- 
rowing down to the 
winding river, this 
wing, all buried in 
creepers, with the 
old-fashioned, ter- 
raced garden in 
front, makes a pretty 
enough picture on 
a summer's day. It is naturally sheltered from all sides but the 
east, and till recently was so wooded towards the Tamar that 
nothing but the undulating heights opposite could be seen be- 
tween the tree-tops. But that fatal blizzard of 'qi spared neither 
historic oaks nor almost prehistoric chestnuts. In merciless fun- 
it swept the declivity so bare, that at the present time tiie vista 
from the terrace is practically a bird's-eye view of Calstock, slop- 
ing down and round the river-turn ; and were it the lot of the 




PORCH OF THE GUARD TOWER 




65 



66 Cotcbele 

illustrious owner of Cotehele to have to lly from some neigh- 
bouring squire, he would find it extremely difficult in his own 
woods to secure cover enough to screen him. Gravel paths 
wind downwards on either side of the ravine, past old ponds and 
a circular dovecot, until a palisade stretching across, whose gates 
must needs be locked, seems to bar farther progress in that 
direction. 

For the fortress above would otherwise be by no means im- 
pregnable against the attacks of hordes of trippers from Ply- 
mouth. You have only to proceed round the bend to the right, 
on to the precipitous knoll where Sir Richard's votive Chapel so 
picturesquely stands, directly above the water, to see abundant 
evidence of their incursions on the panels of the oak door nil 
scored and stencilled with their initials. This kind of excursion- 
ists' gratitude, for admission to private grounds, by the way, is 
cleverly avoided at Swanage where a deal board near the geograph- 
ical globe on the headland bears a printed request to visitors to be 
so good as to inscribe their valuable names upon it rather than 
on the orb of Purbeck stone ; a similar plan might well be 
adopted here. And the refinement of consideration for the 
trippers' propensities would be reached if a chained knife were 
attached to the board, thus furnishing them with every facility 
wherewith to do the deed, and gratify their predilections with a 
minimum of labour. 

Entering the quadrangle by the arched porch of the Guard 
Tower, there is the choice of three ways — to the Retainers' Court, 
the Hall, or the eastern wing. It matters little which is taken, as 
nearly all the rooms connect with each other ; but one naturally 
makes for the chief feature in all early houses — the Hall. One is 
struck rather by its height than its size. The bare lime floor, the 
dark oak roof, and the somewhat feeble, stained-glass light, 
entering only from the quadrangle side, give it a weird, bygone 




ki^:^^&j;uy/.&.-:;.^;.c:r/:.^.:v, .^^~^***i*±*&f- 



WEST SIDE OF THE QUADRANGLE 



67 



68 



dotcbelc 



appearance at all times, except when long tables and the para- 
phernalia of a feast are introduced for some special lunch or 
political function. Round the walls are all sorts of relics : copies 
of the pennons of Sir Richard and Sir Piers ; cuirasses and head- 
pieces worn by cavaliers ; a two-handed state sword with the 
guard turned the wrong way ; a hide target with rapier-snapping 
boss ; cross-bows, small and large ; some halberds ; and firearms 
of divers kinds. Also, two ancient cast bronze Irish horns, 
brought home, perhaps, by the great Sir Richard himself. One 
of these is a speaking-trumpet with oval hole into which to pro- 
ject the voice ; the other is an instrument composed of two 

pieces now soldered 
together, but prob- 
ably not belonging 
to each other : for it 
is only necessary to 
turn to the artistic 
curves of Irish man- 
uscripts, brooches, 
etc., to feel pretty 
sure that no Celtic 
artisan would be 
guilty of making 
such an awkward 
combination, when he could as easily have cast the whole trumpet 
in one piece. Besides, though similar horns and similar straight 
pipes have been found together (but not united), no mouthpiece 
has been discovered fitting into the extended end. But what is 
worthy of even more notice than these is the iron hand. The 
fingers are severally made to move and be fixed at various angles; 
indeed, the whole thing is a very clever piece of workmanship. 
Some unfortunate warrior, small-handed, like the old Britons, 




THE IRON HAND 




6g 



;o Cotebele 

used it on the left arm to hold his shield and disguise the loss of 
his own member. No one knows who he was, when he lived, 
or in what skirmish he came to grief; but here his gauntlet still 
hangs, a mute but eloquent memento of some brave man 
struggling with adversity. 

Before ascending the oak staircase, which at some period 
superseded the earlier stone steps, you turn to the left and enter 
the old Dining-room. This appears to have but one entrance ; 
but doors, concealed by the tapestry, lead thence to the Chapel 
and Punch-room. The huge brass fire-dogs, the leather black- 
jack, painted Italian mirror, and high-backed sofas, all date back 
a great many years ; and the costrels, sackpots, canettes, ewers, 
and other pieces of valuable ware, to say nothing of the antique 
brass rushlight, snuffers, candlesticks, etc., make one greatly 
desire to linger among all these curiosities ; but so much remains 
to be seen that we suppress the wish, and pass on into the 
Chapel. 

The " Crucifixion " in the east window, with angels receiving 
in chalices the sacred drops from hands and feet and side, is a very 
beautiful representation ; before its recent restoration, the portions 
composing it had been mixed up anyhow, and, as they appeared 
then, were quite unintelligible. A pre-Reformation crucifix, 
backed by a sixteenth-century triptych, still lingers on the altar ; 
kitten candlesticks and dishes stand on the re-table ; and the 
altar-cloths display the most exquisite needlework, though two 
of the figures of one of them happen to be missing. Here, too, 
the brazier still continues in use, heating the little oratory in 
winter, and at the same time emitting soporific fumes, sadly 
detrimental, no doubt, to the preacher's best points. The retain- 
ers have their separate door ; the priest his ; and a long horizontal 
slit, passing through the south wall of the chancel, goes by the 
name of the Lepers' window. 




7i 




THE HALL, COTEHELE, SHOWING FIREPLACE 



73 



Cotebcle 



75 



The Chapel had never been successfully photographed ; and it 
was desired to bring out the detail in the east window (much of 
this is lost in the reproduction) and the work on the altar-cloth. 
The difficulty in the way of obtaining a good photograph was 
this : — Except for the east window, the Chapel is lighted only by a 
tiny west window, and the opened south door ; and it was over- 
come thus. A huge tarpaulin, suspended by a yard, was hung 
outside the east window, completely darkening both it and the 
whole chancel. Then all the paraffin lamps in the house were 
brought in, lighted, and set behind the screen, on the floor, on 
seats, etc., where they would not show, cross-reflections being 
avoided as far as possible. Thus the lectern, screen, and brazier 
were illuminated by day-light, (from doorway, and west win- 
dow,) and the whole chancel 
by lamp-light. After an hour's 
exposure, the yard was let go, 
and down came the tarpaulin ; 
and a few seconds' exposure 
then secured the detail of the east 
window. Never before, nor 
since, has the Chapel been so 
brightened and heated up ; the 
result was surprisingly harmo- 
nious ; but one was glad when 
the last lamp was safely ex- 
tinguished. 

Thence we return, and as- 
cend to the state rooms in the 
upper part of this block. One of these, called after King Charles, 
contains a most valuable bedstead, with fine carved work at the 
head. But what catches the attention more than anything else, 
is an extremely old steel mirror, in a by no means modern case. 




GEORGE, THIRD LORD EDQCUMBE, DIED 1795 
AFTER REYN0LD8 



7 6 



Cotcbele 



In the barbarous age of the last century, and even more recently, 
when Cotehele was unoccupied save by caretakers, it was cus- 
tomary occasionally to paint the arms brown, and wash down the 
pictures with gin and water ; and it was customary also to clean 
this mirror with sandpaper ; but now its original brilliance has been 
so wondrously restored that no photograph can convey any idea 
of its depth of lustre and refulgence. The printed card request- 
ing visitors not to touch the surface of this marvel of reflection 
seems superfluous ; and yet did not a very great lady not long 
ago handle the burnished metal all too fondly in spite of it ? If 
only her hand had been uncovered, the royal imprint might have 
been one day interesting, as a proof of identity ; but the blurs 
from the kid glove were not so worthy of preservation, and cost the 
worthy major-domo hours of patient toil before they could be 
wholly effaced. The sombre hue of the tapestry, and the rich dark 
carving of the bedstead, scarcely do themselves justice in ordinary 
lights ; but they become very effective at that particular hour when 

the sun streams in with a warm 
glow through the latticed window. 
And that window, by the 
way, recalls a ludicrous incident 
which befell an occupant of the 
bed on one occasion. It hap- 
pened on this wise. After calling 
his master and quitting the cham- 
, ber, the valet accidentally shot 
the outside bolt, and went his 
way, leaving the inmate an un- 
suspecting prisoner, destitute of all 
communication with the outside world. When the discovery was 
made by the victim, hammering at the door, shouting, knocking 
on the floor, would have been a useless waste of energy ; 




LADY EDQCUMBE 

AFTER REYNOLDS . 




77 




79 



8o 



Cotebele 



not a living creature was in the wing save himself: there 
he must remain, and possess his soul in patience until re- 
lease might chance to arrive. And there he did remain, until the 
happy thought suggested itself to shy the billets of wood from 
the hearth one by one out of the window, and await events. The 
device proved successful. Servants emerged into the quad., not a 
little startled at seeing Palladia coming down from Jove ; but sur- 
prise became dire consternation when they found that someone 





WW 




w 




had been incarcerating the embodiment of all authority, the first 
gentleman in Cornwall, the very Lord Lieutenant himself. Bar- 
ring any similar experience, if King Charles ever slept in this cosy 
room, he found himself in comfortable quarters ; but one is not 
quite so sure about Queen Anne, for hers is a very tiny apartment, 
nearly all bed ; and it is not quite clear how she got into the 
room, or closed the door after she was in, unless her women 
removed at least the outworks of her attire before she entered. 

Lower down you come to the old Withdrawing-room ; a 
bright, delightful room, with abundant light to show off the alle- 
gorical scenes of the tapestry, the carved ebony Tudor suite, the 
intricate Italian cabinets, the Persian carpet "with needlework on 
both sides" ; also the cut velvet chairs, on which George III. and 
his Queen took their " disjune " at Cotehele on August 2s, 1789. 
And, it may be added, the old oak door, with its diagonal 




KING CHARLES'S ROOM 



8l 



82 Cotebele 

panelling and Tudor roses, in a setting of granite archway, so took 
the fancy of the Empress Frederick, that when she saw it, she at 
once asked for an accurate drawing, with a view to reproducing 
it in her German residence. 

Down again to the next landing, and into the Red room. 
Here we find another elaborate bed, more cabinets, Chippendale 
chairs, and a pretty peep through the turned-back tapestry into 
the south room beyond. This latter, just above the old Dining- 
room, being "my lady's chamber," is honoured by having re- 
cesses, with squints into both Hall and Chapel. The hangings 
are suggested to have been worked by Hillaria, and, with the 
chair covers, to have taken her fourteen years to execute ; but 
this is pure conjecture. What is certain is that the mirror is 
dated three hundred years later (1008), and that that looks old 
enough for anything. These mirrors are very characteristic 
items. You see how, when large panes of silvered glass were 
not procurable, small panes were eked out with wide borderings 
of raised figures of persons, animals, and foliage worked in over a 
spirited sketch of the idea, in Indian ink. Like the bed-hangings, 
these mirrors were embellished by the ladies of the house ; and, 
feminine amusements not being too numerous, excessive pains 
were lavished upon their adornment. And then, after a time, 
the old work began to decay ; and a generation arose which 
had neither the skill nor the inclination to restore it. You 
see this, too. For one of these mirrors was once all covered 
with animals done in flat bead-work ; but the lower half of 
the pattern came to pieces ; and then some gentle but mis- 
guided dame, casting about for employment, covered the 
dilapidated part with velvet ; and instead of herself working 
some objects to relieve it, laid sacrilegious hands upon the 
altar-cloth (a royal antiquary suggests bier-cloth) and calmly 
transferred two figures of saints from it to the mirror — forming, 




83 



84 Cotebele 

along with the Durnford arms, the most incongruous mixture it is 
possible to conceive. 

Retracing our steps, we proceed round a landing off the 
stairs, into the White room : a name not due to any "Lady in 
White," but to the prevailing hue of the hangings. However, it 
so chances that this is the only room with any suspicion of a 
ghost. It is not at all surprising that there should be a ghost here- 
in fact, it rather points to the blameless lives of the Cote.heles and 
their successors that there is not a series of spectres distributed 
about this rambling, ghostly old place ; but it is a little strange to 
hear of one being located in a china closet. But then, though 
that is now but an appendage, shut off by tapestry, it is really 
the end room of the original wing, which was subsequently 
absorbed into the great tower. And when one sees that, in the 
thickness of the wall, there are spiral stone steps leading down 
into a cellar adjoining the Punch-room, and that the Punch-room 
communicates directly with the back premises, infinite possibilities 
to account for the presence of an apparition are opened up to a 
perfervid imagination. Fortunately, the nebulous visitor is a 
considerate exception to the general run of ghosts, and does not 
make much noise, or even rattle the china ; and consequently no 
damage has thus far been done to the contents of the shelves, 
which comprise, amongst other things, a porcelain copy of the 
silver Roman lanx dredged up in the Tyne, and now at Alnwick. 

Returning once more to the Hall, one door leads away to the 
kitchen and offices: and in the kitchen is a great circular oven, 
seven feet in diameter, two feet nine inches high, formed of a 
double panel of upright granite slabs, with granite doming above. 
These ovens are rather interesting features in old Cornish houses ; 
for being built in the substance of the wall — naturally the oven- 
work would not support itself— the wall could not be less than 
eight or nine feet thick ; and so there was at hand a certain 




ANCIENT STEEL MIRROR AT COTEHELE 



85 



86 Cotebele 

amount of space, not necessarily accounted for. This waste 
space, in some cases, was utilised for a hiding-place, refuge from 
the press gang, or storage of money and contraband goods. The 
writer recently opened out a secret chamber, in a sixteenth- 
century manor-house, by the side of just another such oven, of 
which a drawing may be seen in Mr. Baring Gould's Strange 
Survivals. The little hiding-place was very ingeniously entered. 
There was a hole ten feet up the wide chimney, and invisible 
from below, reached by a short ladder being brought and pushed 
up the chimney ; and from the manhole a passage ran down 
behind the chimney-back into a domed chamber below. This 
was seven feet by five feet six inches, and five feet high, abso- 
lutely dark, except for a small keystone drawing inwards ; and it 
had so well proved itself to be a secret chamber that successive 
modern tenants had no notion of its existence, until the con- 
taining wall became ruinous, and an accident chanced to reveal 
it. Besides the entrance up in the chimney, the back of the open 
hearth was made to be removable and again replaceable, in case 
a few kegs needed to be stored away hastily. And the only 
objection one saw to the place, as a refuge, was the fact that it 
must have been most uncomfortably warm when the adjacent 
oven was in full heat. 

The secret place at Cotehele was not at the side of, but 
rather above, the great oven. It was discovered and opened 
some years ago, and nothing but a bridle was found in it ; but 
then someone else had been there before, and that someone is 
believed to have been a mason, working about the house, who 
upon his death left his daughter an unusually large sum of 
money, of which no account was forthcoming. Tradition always 
affirmed that treasure was hidden somewhere here, though tradi- 
tion is usually worth nothing in such cases ; but a letter was 
actually inserted in the false bottom of a chest in 1618, and found 




S7 



ss Cotebele 

and recorded in 1640, referring definitely to "strong chests and 
hidden secrets " and " enemies " ; and it is very probable that some 
part of those hidden secrets was deposited in the usual place — 
that is to say, the receptacle close to the kitchen oven — and also 
found its way out from thence, through the hands of the aforemen- 
tioned mason or some previous rogue. For there are extant several 
bills for silver plate, purchased about the time of Charles I. and 
11. ; and, though both the Sir Richard of that period and his son 
Piers suffered for their allegiance, and gave much of their plate 
in their King's service, or else parted with it to raise their fines, it 
is hardly likely that all of it was sacrificed except the very small 
quantity still in existence. However, by the strangest good luck, 
that which has escaped all perils includes a piece of plate much 
earlier than the Charles's days. This is the ancient saltcellar 
(is it>) : the chief ornament of the dinner-table in olden days ; the 
piece sometimes named first in lists of old plate ; the dividing 
mark between the high and low table. And if one may judge of 
the worth of salt by the depth of the receptacle in the top, it was 
at that time remarkably precious, and a very little must have been 
made to go a long way. 

The third door from the Hall leads to what was the buttery 
in the east wing. This room was of old given up to guard- 
rooms, cellars, and a dungeon, with sleeping-rooms for soldiers, 
or loafers overhead. No windows in the lower rooms looked 
outwards, and the facade then was stern, unbroken, and devoid 
of any beauty. In more recent times it was used for farm pur- 
poses. Then the present Earl took it in hand, built a porch, 
inserted lower windows, and sufficiently modernised and fur- 
nished it to make it a dower-house for his mother, the late 
countess dowager. And all praise is due to the way in which 
the work has been done. Several delightful rooms, including 
Drawing-room and Morning-room, have been fitted up ; musty. 




8q 



go Cotebele 

bat-haunted lumber-rooms or apple-stores have been turned into 
bedrooms, even up to the top of the guard tower ; and yet all 
this has been effected with hardly any interference with the 
original plan. The staircase has been formed by stealing corners 
from two rooms, above and below, and then hiding the theft by 
oak wainscoting. What was but lately a cellar or cider-press- 
room, or something of that sort, is now a fascinating library, at 
the end of the wing. 

And yet not at the very end, for, on lifting a curtain, behold ! 
a low granite doorway reveals and leads into the dungeon. A 
bolt is placed inside the door ; so it may have been a refuge as 
well. Whether the one or the other, the only source of light is 
a tiny window far up in the wall, with a long narrow shaft 
leading therefrom and passing through the vaulted roof of the 
cell. But now, times are so changed that, instead of inspiring 
prisoners or fugitives with gloomy, desperate thoughts, its pur- 
pose has grown wholly beneficent ; for, in offering its friendly 
shelter to the knight of the camera in search of a dark room, it 
encourages the fine arts ; and to practise these, is said, on 
authority, to "soften the manners, and prevent their being 
ferocious." Which being so, if only the tyrant of Bere Ferrers 
could have taken up photography, he might never have wanted 
to hunt Richard of Eggecombe ; and it is safe to assume that 
that poor ill-used man would have preferred even posing as a 
model to being " contrewayted and chasyd " and ruthlessly 
assailed with trygenders. 



(Blamis 



91 




THE MAIN FRONT OF QLAMIS CASTLE 

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY VALENTINE SONS, DUNDEE 



GLAM1S 



BY LADY GLAMIS 

GLAMIS CASTLE is widely known as one of the most in- 
teresting buildings, both historically and architecturally, 
in Scotland. 
To the lover of Shakespeare, the name of Glammiss (as it 
was sometimes spelt) will recall the act of treachery and murder 
which tradition gives as having taken place there, when King 
Duncan was done to death by the hand or at the instigation of 
the ambitious and unscrupulous Lady Macbeth ; although there is 
no possibility of proving or testing the truth as to the details or 
locality of the tragedy. 

To the antiquarian the Castle must be of immense interest, 
on account of the great age of the central portion or Keep, which 
is known to have been standing in 1016, but "whose birth tradi- 
tion notes not " ; while to the romantic and superstitious it is 

93 



94 



(Blamis 



a place where ghosts and spirits moving silently down wind- 
ing stairs and dark passages are wont to make night fearsome. 
This feeling of eeriness is not confined to the naturally 

nervous, for Sir Walter 
Scott, who spent a 
night at Glamis in 1704, 
writes : 

" After a very hos- 
pitable reception . . . 
1 was conducted to my 
apartment in a distant 
part of the building. I 
must own that when I 
heard door after door 
shut, after my conductor 
had retired, 1 began to 
consider myself too far 
from the living a n d 
somewhat too near the 
dead." 

Additional interest 
attaches to this Castle 
from the fact that its 
venerable walls en- 
shroud a mysterious something, which has for centuries baffled 
the curiosity and investigations of all unauthorised persons : this 
secret is known only to three people — the Earl of the time being, 
his eldest son, and one other individual whom they think worthy 
of their confidence. 

Most people have theories upon this subject, and many ridic- 
ulous stories are told ; but so carefully has the mystery been 
guarded, that no suspicion of the truth has ever come to light. 




MALCOLM'S STONE," IN THE GARDEN OF GLAMIS MANSE 




THE CRYPT, GLAMIS CASTLE 

FORMERLY THE RETAINERS' HALL 



93 



9 6 



(Slamis 



ago the 




ROOM IN WHICH KINO. MALCOLM II. DIED, AD. 1034 



One version of the story is as follows : Several centuries 
Lord Glamis of the time was entertain- 
ing the head of another noble family 
then resident in Angus ; and in the 
course of the evening they commenced 
to play cards. It was Saturday night, 
and so intent were they 
on wagering lands and 
money on the issue of 
the game, that they did 
not recognise the fact 
that Sunday morning 
was approaching until an old retainer ventured to remind them 

of the hour. Whereupon one of the gamblers 
swore a great oath, with the tacit approval of 
the other, that they did not care what day it 
might be, but they would finish their game 
at any cost, even if they went on playing till 
Doomsday ! It had struck midnight ere he 
had finished his sentence, when there sud- 
denly appeared a 
stranger dressed in 
black, who politely in- 
formed their lordships 
that he would take them 
at their word and then 
vanished. 

The story goes on 
to aver that annually on 
that night these noble- 

THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, SEEN FROM THE CRYPT PIPP OT thpiT SniVltS 

meet and play cards in the secret room of the Castle, and that 





97 




THE DINING-ROOM, QLAMIS CASTLE 
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY VALENTINE SONS, DUNDEE 



L.ofC. 



99 



ioo (Blamis 

this will go on till Doomsday. In corroboration of this story, it is 
said that on a certain night in the autumn of every year loud 
noises are heard and some of the casements of the Castle are 
blown open. 

Glamis Castle stands in the centre of the vale of Strath- 
more, in a picturesque and well-wooded part of Forfarshire ; the 
heather-clad sides of the Sidlaws, which divide Strathmore from 
the sea, rising to the south, while away to the north tower the 
Grampians, which form a magnificent background to the ancient 
pile of buildings whose turrets rise some hundred and fifteen feet 
above the level of the ground. 

The poet Gray, in a letter, describes the exterior of the 
Castle in the following words : 

"The house, from the height of it, the greatness of its mass, 
the many towers atop, and the spread of its wings, has really a 
very singular and striking appearance, like nothing 1 ever saw." 

The oldest portions of the Castle are formed of huge irregular 
blocks of old red sandstone, which time and weather have mel- 
lowed into a beautiful grey-pink colour. The original Keep was 
evidently about three or four storeys high, but Earl Patrick in 
1(170 heightened it considerably; the extra storeys were, how- 
ever, so well " clappit on" (to use the Earl's own words) that it 
is impossible to see where the additions commence. The walls 
of the Castle in many places are sixteen feet thick, which in the 
olden days had the essential recommendation of great security, 
and also of allowing space for secret rooms and passages as means 
of escape in times of peril ; and, as a matter of fact, two secret 
staircases have been discovered within the last five-and-twenty 
years, and possibly there are others, which still remain forgotten 
and unused. 

The narrow windows appear at irregular heights and dis- 
tances in the central building or Keep and left wing (the right 




THE DRAWING-ROOM, GLAMIS CASTLE 
FORMERLY THE BANQUETING HALL 



102 



©lamis 



wing having been burnt down and rebuilt early in 1800 is not so 
interesting), but the great staircase added by Patrick, Lord 
Glamis, in 1605 is very fine, occupying a circular tower, the space 
for which has been partly dug out of the old walls of the Keep, 

and rises to the third storey. This 
staircase (the designing of which has 
been attributed to Inigo Jones) is spiral 
with a hollow newel in the centre, 
and is composed of stone to the sum- 
mit. It consists of 141 steps, 6 ft. 
10 in. in width, each of one stone. 

The staircases which were in use 
before 1000 are very narrow, dark, 
and some of them winding, the steps 
steep and irregular in height, worn 
into hollows by the many feet that for 
centuries climbed them. Up two 
flights of these dimly lit, uneven 
stairs, the wounded king, Malcolm 
11., after having been treacherously 
attacked and mortally wounded by 
Kenneth V. and his adherents on the Hunter's Hill, about a mile 
from the Castle, was carried by his followers to die in the chamber 
that still bears the name of King Malcolm's Room. This murder 
of King Malcolm is the first authentic event mentioned by the 
chroniclers in connection with Glamis. 

In the parish of Glamis stand three huge stones of rude de- 
sign, covered with symbolic sculptures, which according to tra- 
dition were erected to commemorate the death of Malcolm 11. 
One on the Hunter's Hill is supposed to mark the spot where he 
fell, and stands about seven feet high, facing the east ; a cross, 
figures of men, and various symbols are sculptured on it, but are 




THE LION OF GLAMIS" CUP 



(Slamis 



103 



much defaced. The stone close to the kirkyard is much larger, 
and is called King Malcolm's gravestone, although that king was 
not buried there. An ornamental cross and 
many curious symbols are carved on the 
side facing the east ; on the other side a 
fish, a serpent, and a circle are seen, — 
symbols of Christianity, — which carvings 
are of a later date than the cross, etc., and 
are attributed to the Knights Templars, who 
lived in that part of Scotkind for a long time. 
In the time of King Malcolm, Glamis 
was a royal residence, and remained so till 
H72, when Sir John Lyon, " a young man 
of very good parts and qualities, and of a 
very graceful and comely person, and a 
great favourite with the king" (Robert II.), 
was made Lord High Chamberlain of Scot- 
land. At that time the King's daughter, 
the Princess Jean, fell in love with this 
young knight, and was given him in mar- 
riage, together with the lands of the thane- 
dom of Glamis, "pro laudabili ct fideli 
servitio et continuis Liboribus," as the 
charter bears witness, March 18, 1372. Ten 
years later Sir John fell in a duel with Sir 
James Lindsay of Crawford, and was buried 
at Scone among the kings of Scotland. He 
left one son, from whom the present family 
of Lyon have descended without a break 
from father to son to the present day. (It may be mentioned in- 
cidentally that the ancestor of the Lyon family came over with 
William I., and that either he or one of his immediate descendants 




SWORD OF KING. JAMES VIII." 



104 (Slamis 

settled in Perthshire in the district still called Glenlyon.) Fifty 
years later, Sir Patrick Lyon (Sir John's grandson), who was one of 
the hostages to the English for the ransom of James 1. from 1424 to 
1427, was created Baron Glamis, and appointed Master of the 
Household to the King of Scotland. For the next hundred years 
nothing of interest occurred, till John, sixth Lord Glamis, married 
the beautiful Janet Douglas, granddaughter of the great Earl of An- 
gus (" Bell-the-Cat "), and died in 1S28. Lady Glamis married, 
secondly, Archibald Campbell, of Kepneith, whose relative, another 
Campbell, fell in love with her. Finding, however, that his ad- 
dresses were but ill received by this lady, who was as good as she 
was lovely, his love turned to hate, and he revenged himself by in- 
forming the authorities that Lady Glamis, her son Lord Glamis, 
and John Lyon, his relative, were conspiring against the life of 
the king, James V., by poison or witchcraft. They were tried for 
high treason, and wrongfully convicted ! Lady Glamis and her 
young son were both sentenced to be burned, and the estate of 
Glamis was forfeited and annexed to the Crown by Act of Parlia- 
ment, December 3, 1S40. However, these brutal judges, on 
account of the extreme youth of Lord Glamis, feared to bring 
him to execution, so the boy was kept in prison, with the death 
sentence hanging over him, while the beautiful Lady Glamis was 
dragged forth and burned at the stake on the Castle Hill of 
Edinburgh, July 17, is ^7. Those were days when acts of vio- 
lence and cruelty were regarded with an indifference that we 
cannot now realise, although when she stood up in her beauty 
to undergo this fearful sentence, it is recorded that all heads 
were bowed in sorrowful sympathy. When this infamous exe- 
cution was accomplished, remorse seems to have come over 
Campbell, who was visited by visions of his victim looking at 
him with sad, reproachful eyes. When, some years later, his 
death was drawing nigh, he confessed that his evidence at the 




105 



106 (Blamis 

trial was altogether false. Lord Glamis was therefore released 
from prison, and his estates and honours restored. 

To return to the Castle. The exterior is much ornamented 
with ancient armorial bearings in carved stone of the principal 
Earls since 1606, quartered with those of their separate wives, 
among them the Murray, Panmure, Ogilvey, and Middleton 
quarterings. Above one window the initials of Patrick, first Earl 
of Kinghorne, and of Dame Anna Murray, his wife, daughter of 
the first Earl of Tullibardine, are placed, while a round niche over 
the front door contains a bust of Earl Patrick, of whom mention 
will be made presently. The principal entrance is a striking 
feature. The doorway is small and low, and a stout, iron- 
clinched oaken door, thickly studded with nails, is guarded on 
the inside by a heavily grated iron gate, which opens right on to 
the great staircase. A flight of steps to the right of the entrance 
leads down to the dungeons, vaults, and the old well (now filled 
up) which supplied the inmates with water in times of siege ; 
while another stair to the left leads up to the Retainers' Hall (or 
Crypt as it is now called), low, and fifty feet in length, with 
walls and arched roof entirely composed of stone. Of the seven 
windows, which are small, four or five are cut out of the thick- 
ness of the walls, and make recesses just large enough to form 
small rooms, which might have been used as sleeping-chambers 
in old days. Lay figures, clad in complete armour, stand in the 
recesses, which, especially in the dusk, give an eerie effect to this 
part of the Castle. It is said that a ghostly man in armour walks 
this floor at night — possibly the original of one of those armoured 
figures standing silently in the Crypt year after year, who may, 
perchance, have ended his life in the dungeon that lies exactly 
underneath. A square stone, now practically immovable, formed 
the covering of the hole by which prisoners were lowered into 
the dungeon beneath. But there is no doubt that there was also 



io8 



(Slamts 




PATRICK, LORD GLAMIS, A.D. 1600 



a stair connecting the hall with the dungeon, which, along with 

the other old staircases 



(some of them have re- 
cently been opened out), 
was walled up at the time 
the great new central stair- 
case was built. 

From the south-east 
corner of the Crypt a short, 
dark passage, cut through 
the stone walls, leads to 
the small, quaint, and ir- 
regular Duncan's Hall, the 
traditional scene of Mac- 
beth's crime, where a year 

or so ago an old hearth was discovered built up in the masonry, 

and has been opened out. 

The Dining-room, which 

is entered from the west 

end of the Crypt, is another 

fine room, though quite 

modern, having been re- 
built early in 1800. The 

walls are panelled in oak, 

and adorned with some 

good family pictures ; but 

the most interesting object 

that occasionally appears 

in it is the old silver-gilt 



drinking-cup in the form 

r 1- a ELIZABETH, COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE, A.D. 1700 

ot a lion, a very ancient 

piece of plate, holding about a pint of wine, which in old days 




(Ulamis 



109 



each guest was expected to 
Walter Scott was one of 
those who swallowed the 
contents of the lion, and in 
a note to Waverley he says 
' ' the feat served to sug- 
gest the story of the Bear 
of Bradwardine." 

Leaving this floor, 
with its dark winding 
passages, its grated, 
prison-like windows, and 
ascending a side staircase, 
King Malcolm's room is 
passed, and the Banquet- 
ing Hall (now used as the 
Drawing-room) is entered. 
This room is a fine specimen 



drain before quitting the Castle. Sir 





CHARLES LORD LYON, A.D. 1715 



HELEN, COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE, A.D. 1672 

of the old baronial days, being sixty 
feet long by twenty-two 
wide, with a coved ceiling 
of beautifully designed 
plaster-work, which was 
added to the room by Earl 
John in 1621, whose in- 
itials, with those of his 
wife, together with the 
date, are placed at intervals 
among the patterns of the 
mouldings. The chimney- 
piece of carved stone is 
very fine, reaching to the 
top of the room, while 



I IO 



(Slamis 



pictures of the Lyon family, as well as of some of the Stuart kings 
and other notables, adorn the walls. Here hangs the portrait by 
Sir Peter Lely of the celebrated John Graham of Claverhouse, 
Viscount Dundee ; this well-known and distinguished chief, who, 

had he lived longer, would pro- 
bably have restored Scotland to 
King James II., was a great 
friend of the Lord Strathmore 
of the time, and consequently 
spent many days at Glamis, 
Claverhouse being situated 
a bout twelve miles to the 
south. The picture represents 
Dundee as a very handsome 
young man, with features soft 
and refined even to feminine 
regularity ; but u n d e r this 
gentle exterior can be detected 
the undaunted and enterprising 
valour coupled with the pru- 
dence and determination that 
were the acknowledged attributes of his character. His coat, a sad 
buff-coloured felt, laced with silver, and evidently similar to the one 
he was wearing when he met his death at Killiecrankie, is kept 
as a valuable relic in the Castle. 

What different scenes must this, old Hall have witnessed in 
its time ! Mot many years prior to the visits of the gallant 
Clavers, the soldiers of the Commonwealth held their rude orgies 
under its roof, having been quartered at Glamis by Cromwell's 
orders as a piece of petty revenge, because John, second Earl of 
Kinghorne, had voted against the delivery of King Charles 1. to 
the Parliament. Then in 171s deep mourning surely reigned 




CLAVERHOUSE'S COAT 




THE SUNK GARDEN, QLAMIS 



I 12 



(Blamis 



there, when the news arrived that the brave and promising 

young Earl of Strathmore had been killed at the battle of Sheriff- 

muir, after fighting hard and gallantly in the cause of the Stuarts. 

The following year the mourning was turned to joy when 

Prince James 
spent two nights 
at Glamis on his 
way to Scone. 
What feasting 
and loyal toasts 
must have been 
given in the Hall 
in the course of 
those two snowy 
nights and days, 
when the Cheva- 
lier received 
many of his fol- 
lowers, and 
gained all hearts 
by his princely 
qualities ! It is 
said that during 
this visit eighty- 
eight beds were 
made up in the 
Castle for the gentlemen in his train. The Chevalier's bed is still 
to be seen, though much spoiled by tourists, who, on certain 
days, are allowed to go over the Castle ; and the room he occu- 
pied, with a secret stair concealed in the walls, still bears his 
name. His watch and sword are among the treasured curiosities 
in the Castle, the former having been found under his pillow after 




THE GREAT SUN-DIAL 



(Slamts 



1 1 



M 1*1 i ii .■ . , », ;, x . 










CASTLE OF QLAMISS IN 1686. (FROM A PAINTING IN THE CASTLE! 



he left for Dundee. The sword bears the following inscription : 
" God save King James 8th : prosper i tic to Scotland and no union. " 

But to return to the Hall itself. The principal picture hangs 
at the end of the room, and represents Patrick, first Earl of Strath- 
more and third of 
Kinghorne, who 
beautified G 1 a m i s 
considerably both 
within and without, 
as his diary testifies, 
which is in perfect 
preservation, a n d 
well illustrates the 
social life of Scotland 
more than two hun- 
dred years ago. In this portrait he is depicted sitting with three 
of his sons, pointing with pride to the Castle in the distance, 
on which he had spent so much care. At that time the Castle 
was surrounded by walled courts, gardens, and a moat ; and 
the main approach to the south, about a mile in length, was 
guarded by seven gates, and was the work of Earl Patrick. These 
surroundings were all pulled down early in 1800 by a disciple of 
"Capability Brown," the two flanking towers alone being left! 
Sir Walter Scott, who revisited Glamis after this barbarous act 
of modernising had been accomplished, describes the changes in 
such beautiful language that it should be quoted : 

" Down went many a trophy of old magnificence, courtyard, 
ornamented enclosure, fosse, avenue, barbican, and every exter- 
nal muniment of battled wall and flanking tower, out of the 
midst of which the ancient dome, rising high above all its charac- 
teristic accompaniments, and seemingly girt round by its appro- 
priate defences, which again circled each other in their different 



in (Blamis 

gradations, looked, as it should, the queen and mistress of the 
surrounding country. It was thus that the huge old Tower of 
Glamis once showed its lordly head above seven circles of defens- 
ive boundaries, through which the friendly guest was admitted, 
and at each of which a suspicious person was unquestionably 
put to his answer." There were two or three moats surrounding 
the Castle, but the)' were tilled in by Patrick, third Earl of King- 
home and first Earl of Strathmore. 

That Earl proceeds to say of these moats, in his diary, 
"which stankt up the water so that the place appeared marish 
and weat," and was generally condemned as "an unholsom 
seat of a house." 

Very close to the walls of the Castle there are the remains of 
what some consider to have been a moat, whilst others con- 
sider it to have been an underground passage. It appears hardly 
wide enough for a moat, and the fact of the sides being lined 
and the top beautifully arched with stone almost favours the 
supposition that it may be part of that underground passage of 
which there has long been a tradition. 

The Chapel, which opens out of the Drawing-room, is one 
of the most interesting parts of the Castle. Thirty feet by 
twenty ; walls and ceiling are divided into thirty-four panels, 
each one containing a picture relating to the life of our Lord 
and the Twelve Apostles. These paintings were executed by a 
Dutch artist named De Witt, whom Earl Patrick engaged by con- 
tract, in [688, to paint all the Chapel (as well as a good many 
ceilings and portraits) for the sum of £90. The contract for this 
work is still among the family papers, and is very curious, as De 
Witt was evidently a slippery fellow who required a good deal 
of binding. When the present Lord Strathmore succeeded to the 
title, in 1800. he found the paintings in perfect preservation, but 
the Chapel in a sadly neglected state ; he therefore had it 




QLAMIS CASTLE IN 1730 
(from an old print) 



n6 (Blamis 

beautifully restored and rededicated, and daily service has been held 
there ever since ; the painted walls and ceiling, stained glass, 
beautiful embroidered altar-cloths (worked by the present Lady 
Strath more), and flowers, render this little chapel peculiarly at- 
tractive as a place of worship. 

The Billiard-room, with its fine and valuable tapestry, repre- 
senting incidents in the life of Nebuchadnezzar, and of which 
only three examples were known to exist, 1 is on this same floor, 
and is the last of the large rooms, being fifty feet long, but it is 
not part of the ancient building. Here stands a great chest filled 
with beautiful costumes in flowered silks, velvets, and satins, as 
well as old uniforms, all belonging to Lyon ancestors of several 
centuries ago; besides these a fool's dress remains, cap, bells, and 
all complete — a rare possession nowadays. Sometimes these an- 
cient garments see the light, when the Castle is full of young and 
merry guests, who don these slashed and broidered coats and 
skirts, and when gathered together in the old Crypt almost seem 
to have forced back the hands of the clock of time two or three 
hundred years. 

There remains yet much to tell, but space fails. The old 
kitchen, an underground vault, dark and low, with one loophole 
to light it, is a contrast to the present kitchen, which is fifty feet 
long and broad in proportion. The great sun-dial on the lawn is 
quite unique, bearing as it does eighty-four dials, supported by 
four nearly life-size lions in stone; and although the exact age 
of this remarkable piece of work is not known, old pictures of 
Glamis prove that it was standing in front of the Castle in 1600. 
A balustrade of fine seventeenth-century iron work runs round 
the top of the Castle, from whence, on clear days, magnificent 
views may be obtained of the surrounding country ; while the 
beautiful gardens, walks, and drives, which have been created by 

1 A replica of this tapestry is to be found in the " King's Room " at Knole, Kent. — Ed. 




H7 



n8 (Slamis 

the present Lord Strathmore (who has bestowed as much care 
on the old place as his ancestor, Earl Patrick, of whom mention 
has been made), deserve more than passing notice. The old 
Castle, as it now is, enlivened by the cheerful surroundings of 
a large family party, and ringing with the glad sounds of grand- 
children's voices, is a truly pleasant place to live in ; whilst the 
great iron gate stands hospitably open to welcome the many 
guests who pass that way, who, in spite of the Castle's reputa- 
tion for ghosts, seem to pass their time merrily enough. 



%evem Iball 



119 




LtVENS HALL, FRONT VIEW 



LEVENS HALL 



BY DOSIA BAGOT 



M 



Y fancy takes me to a spot where it is my delight to 
linger on cool autumn days. It is a certain venerable 
bridge, overhung with ivy, and known to many dwell- 
ers in the North Country. A river flows beneath it : at one 
moment a rushing, noisy river bounding and leaping over rock 
and stone, the next winding along so hushed and still that one 
might gaze for ever in its depths, lazily dreaming away the hours 
over the fairy-like possibilities hidden away down there in that 
mysterious labyrinth of moss and weed. But above, men and 
women of every kind, absorbed and distracted by conflicting 
interests, are constantly hurrying. 

Levens Bridge has stood for centuries, through those days 
when packhorses only could cross, until the time when the ex- 
igencies of progress demanded, by the widening of the bridge, 



12 2 



Xcvcns Iball 




LEVENS BRIDGE 



sufficient space to allow waggons and carriages to pass ; and 
there it has remained. 

But now 1 can spy you in the distance, Hying down the 
steep hill yonder on the latest improvement in Humber wheels. 

When you get to the 
bridge you alight, with 
the odd little shuffle 
peculiar to bicyclists, 
and remain looking 
over curiously into 
the stream. Seeming 
disposed to linger, I 
ask if you would care 
to be shown a little 
more, and you accept 
my invitation. Con- 
necting with the bridge is a long, straight wall inclosing a garden. 
Into this we pass through a heavy tall door, and after walking a 
pace or two we are suddenly confronted by a strange old-fash- 
ioned building, quite out of the common run. 

A quaint structure indeed, enough to puzzle an adept in 
architecture, for it is the outcome of many periods. A square 
embattled tower, known by the term " Pele Tower," is the main 
feature ; and surrounding it, blending with its sombre tints of 
neutral grey, is an Elizabethan manor-house, with mullioned 
windows and latticed panes. 

Walking up the steps and opening an oak door fully six 
inches thick, we find ourselves in a large Hall in which all that 
meets the eye is suggestive of life in some bygone day. The 
walls are panelled with oak till they reach a frieze of intricate 
plaster-work which merges into a ceiling also of elaborate design : 
the Tudor badge of the rose and crown, the red and white roses 





123 



Icvens 1ball 125 

of York and Lancaster, the flcur-dc-lys, the bugle and the deer, 
badges of the Bellinghams, and other emblems are freely inter- 
spersed amongst the tracery. In the centre of the Hall is the wide, 
open fireplace with its wrought-iron backing, its dogs of copper 
on either side, and the old hearthstone fire of wood and peat 
sending forth a sparkling flame. Above are the arms of Queen 
Elizabeth in gilded and coloured plaster-work, and on either side 
hang pieces of armour, blunderbusses, swords, pikes, weapons 
innumerable of every date. At the west end of the Hall the 
panelling is of a more massive description, peculiar to the time of 
Henry VII. : it is clearly the old screen which was indispensable 
to every great hall in early times. 

We now pass into the Dining-room. This, with the excep- 
tion of one oak-panelled wall, is entirely decorated with most 
brilliant Spanish leather, the background being of burnished gold ; 
hence allusions in old papers to this room as the "Gilded Par- 
lour." Over the fireplace is more handsome carved and inlaid 
work, bearing the date 1586, the initials J. B., and a coat-of-arms. 

Through the Hall again we arrive at the Drawing-rooms. 
They are entirely walled in oak, each panel having a diamond 
pattern ; the doorways are richly carved, so are the chimney- 
pieces ; that in the large Drawing-room bears the date 1595. and 
is exceptionally beautiful in its proportions and carving. 

On entering the inner room, one's attention is instantly 
attracted to the chimneypiece, on which the following lines are 
quaintly cut : 

" Thus the five sences stand portraited here, 
The elements four and seasons of the yeare. 
Samson supports the one side as in rage, 
The other Hercules in like equipage." 

And these words can best explain the subject of an elaborate and 
somewhat grotesque piece of carving which extends from 



126 levens 1ball 

fireplace to ceiling. In this room, as in others we have so far 
seen, different coats-of-arms with mottoes beneath are emblaz- 
oned in stained glass in the windows : around one is painted 
in Latin doggerel — 

"Amicus Amico Alarms, 
Belliger Belligero Bellinghamus." 

It was that same Alan Bellingham who made himself the pos- 
sessor of Levens in 1487. 

And in order thoroughly to understand the history of this 
house, we should, before going another step, glance for a minute 
or two far back into the annals of Levens : let us rest awhile be- 
fore the Hall fire, whilst 1 give you in as few words as possible 
a rough idea of the people who lived here from the earliest 
times. 

Did you remark a certain old piece of parchment with a seal 
attached, which lay in a glass case in the Drawing-room ? The 
writing is legible, and the ink is clear, but it bears the date 1 100, 
as well as the seal of Richard 1.. and is the first record we have 
of Levens. It is a charter exempting the owner from the pay- 
ment of a tax called "Nutgeld," Levens being at that time the 
property of Henry de Redman. He had bought it in the thirty- 
fourth year of Henry II. from one Ketel, a descendant of Roger 
de Poictou, who owned the manor at the time of the Doomsday 
Survey. Henry de Redman was Seneschal of Kendal, and mem- 
bers of his family represented Westmorland in Parliament from 
12QS to 1477 ; their names occur frequently in the old House of 
Commons' rolls, and one Matthew Redman's coat-of-arms is 
emblazoned on a window at Westminster. Otherwise, there is 
little of interest to relate of their personal history. 

Theirs were the days of Border troubles, when the North 
Country was still a land of unrest. Levens was therefore kept in 
a state of fortification, with fighting-men always ready to arm on 




THE HALL, WITH ARMS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH OVFR THE FIREPLACE 



127 



i28 levens Iball 

the shortest notice. We know the old Pele Tower existed at 
that time, as well as the outer walls of the Hall ; above this 
Hall ceiling are the roughly hewn but ornamental rafters which 
formed at one time its open roof, whilst below here are the 
ancient basement rooms, fireplace and all, which are now only 
used as cellars. They are massively built, about eight feet high, 
and the doorways are of that construction known as "square 
trefoil-headed," which originated in the thirteenth century ; ex- 
perts have therefore come to the conclusion that the original 
building of this house could have been no later than the middle 
of the fourteenth century, and doubtless some form of manor- 
house existed a hundred and fifty years before. 

And so we come to the occupation of Levens by Alan Bel- 
lingham. His family had lived at Burneside Hall (about eight 
miles distant, and now a farmhouse) since the reign of Edward 
1. Although he was a younger son of Sir John Bellingham, 
Alan appears to 'have been rich ; furthermore, being Treasurer 
of Berwick, Deputy-Warden of the Marshes, and having, in the 
reign of Henry VII., received a grant from the King for the fourth 
part of the barony of Kendal, he must have been a man of some 
importance. But it is to his great-grandson, Sir James Belling- 
ham, that we owe a lasting debt of gratitude, for to his consum- 
mate taste and lavish expenditure the restoration of this house is 
entirely due. With the exception of one wing which was added 
later, all that you have seen, besides every other room and corner 
of it, are part of his scheme ; so can you wonder that the two 
dates we noticed of 1586 and 15QS approximately mark the be- 
ginning and completion of his labours ? 

The Bellinghams lived here for two hundred years. Their 
occupation marks an era of peace and civilisation for Levens, 
when a state of chronic hostility was gladly abandoned for the 
more congenial excitements attending recreation and sport. Let 




THE DINING-ROOM, LEVENS HALL 

FORMERLY CALLED THE "GILDED PARLOUR" 



I2g 



130 Xevcns 1ball 

us imagine them in pursuit of the deer through Levens Park, and 
chasing the otter on the river banks ; and in this, no doubt, the 
results were less futile than at the present day, for Alan Belling- 
ham alludes in his diary to "excellent sport both by land and 
water at Levens." The existence also of a set of bowls stamped 
with the Bellingham crest, gives sufficient evidence that the old 
bowling-green here must date back quite three hundred years. 1 
should also tell you of an ancient custom still existing at Levens, 
which probably originated with the Bellinghams. From a high- 
class goblet called a "constable," unsuspecting strangers are 
sometimes cajoled into drinking a unique and bitter compound of 
the genus of ale ; but ere one drop may touch their lips they 
must stand on one leg and loudly pledge the toast, " Luck to 
Levens whilst the Kent flows." 

Alas ! what the wisdom and industry of generations have 
evolved may be scattered in a day by one man's folly ; so it 
happened that on another of the name of Alan Bellingham, a 
descendant of the first, the luck of Levens descended neither on 
character nor fortune, and in io8s it became imperative for him 
to sell the whole of his Levens estates. Tradition has generally 
a tinge of accuracy, yet I fancy that a local historian of the day, 
in describing Alan as "an ingenious but unhappy young man, 
who consumed a vast estate," must be responsible for the popular 
belief that he gambled away his property bit by bit, whilst play- 
ing repeated games of chance with a certain friend of his, one 
Colonel Grahme. Anyhow, it was this most wily courtier of 
both Charles II. and James II. who found himself eventually 
possessor of this place, and with his advent, Levens history 
takes quite a new departure, the interest consequently increasing 
not a little. The days of Jacobite intrigue were now at their 
height, when no man's life was safe for many days together : the 
air was rent by religious strife, every man's hand was against his 




i3i 



1 32 Xevens Iball 

neighbour for worshipping God in a different manner from him- 
self; and prisons were overflowing with the victims of a King 
who fell short of very few for intolerance and fanatical tyranny. 

Colonel Grahme was a firm adherent of the Stuarts, and in 
the thick of every Jacobite rising of the day ; he had led a some- 
what stormy life in his youth, and had served in the French army. 
Horace Walpole describes him as "a fashionable man in his day, 
and noted for his dry humour " ; judging by other contemporary 
records, I believe modern slang would style him as "a bit of a 
dog." His wife, Dorothy Howard, was maid of honour to the 
Queen, Catherine of Braganza, and said by Evelyn to be " not 
only a great beauty, but a most virtuous and excellent creature." 
Portraits of them both by Sir Peter Lely hang in the Drawing- 
room. Grahme stood for Westmorland from 1685 to 1722; was 
Privy Purse to James II., and until the King's abdication was 
Master of the Buckhounds and Lieutenant of Windsor Forest. 

Always a confidential adviser to his master, Grahme proved 
trusty and devoted to the end, and accompanied him in his final 
flight to Rochester. It was natural that at William III. 's acces- 
sion some kind of retribution awaited him ; but he had merely to 
submit to a short imprisonment, and was then released without 
further trial. Less fortunate in this respect were Grahme's two 
brothers: one of them — Fergus— was banished from England, 
and the other sentenced to death for his Jacobite proclivities. 
The exile, indeed, was pursued by repeated ill-luck ; and as late 
as 1699 he wrote from Brussels that the Prince de Berge was 
"commanded by the Duke of Bavaria to order me to leave 
Bruxelles the next day." 

And now, with characteristic caution, Colonel Grahme wisely 
evaded public notoriety for awhile ; and, but for attending to his 
Parliamentary duties, spent much of his time at Levens. Need- 
less to say, so active a mind was not permitted to lie fallow : he 




'33 



134 levcns 1ball 

kept up his old friendships ; consequently, all who favoured the 
Stuart cause were made welcome under his roof, and 1 fancy in 
many cases were harboured somewhat by stealth. If stones 
could speak, what secrets these walls might disclose, what plots 
of portentous importance they might reveal, could we but hear 
the talk of Grahme and his guests in the Gilded Parlour, as the 
wine flowed and the toast was renewed " To the King over the 
water ! " 

The pleasures also of letter-writing must have lightened many 
an hour for Grahme. When 1 tell you that his numerous corre- 
spondents included such notorieties as the Duke of Hamilton, 
Bolingbroke, Godolphin, Carlisle, Bishops Ken and Atterbury, 
Sir George Rooke, and William Wycherley, you may judge 
whether their nature was treasonable. In fact, they are nearly 
all pervaded by a spirit of suppressed hostility ; hardly a line or 
sentence that is not bristling with sedition, intrigue, and exaspera- 
tion. These interesting papers are all locked up in a room in the 
Pele Tower ; and thither, if it please you, we will now turn our 
steps. 

Passing through another pointed doorway, we go straight 
into the Tower, and climb up its narrow spiral staircase, cau- 
tiously evading the projecting stone steps which threaten to 
knock our heads. We find only a few picturesquely panelled 
rooms, whose rough, uneven boards, levelled only by the adze, 
bear witness to their extreme age. The deed-room contains a 
number of boxes closely packed with manuscripts. Here are 
Grahme's various commissions, civil and military ; one is signed 
by Charles 11., another by Prince Rupert, and another by Louis 
XIV. This is a letter written to Dorothy Grahme by Sir Stephen 
Fox, when her husband and the King fled to Rochester. 

" Whitehall, December 1W1. 1688. 

" Your husband went with the King to Rochester this morning, 



Xevens 1ball 



*35 



and he told me that he had not time to write. About one 
o'clock this morning, the Marquess of Halifax, the Earl of Shrews- 
bury, and Lord Delamore came to the King from the Prince of 
Orange, and told him 
that the Prince desired 
him to remove to Ham. 
The King chose Ro- 
chester rather, where- 
upon their Lordships 
returned about nine 
o'clock with leave that 
it might be Rochester. 
About eleven o'clock 
the King went in his 
barges for Gravesend, 
whither his coaches 
were sent before. He 
was attended by three 
Lords of the Bedcham- 
ber, and a physician, 
and several others, be- 
sides your husband, 
and a convenient num- 
ber of household servants, and, at his own desire, a hundred of 
the Prince's footguards and sixty horse. He is not under any re- 
straint. The Prince arrived at St. James's about three o'clock, 
resorted to by all who can get in. I was by command left here, 
extremely troubled for the circumstances of my master. 1 hope 
for a happy Parliament. I wish you and Lady Silvius here, as the 
safest place, for the rabble is quiet in this city. It is said that 
they are terrible in many countries." 

We have one very precious document: it is in James II. 's 




CHIMNEYPIECE IN DRAWING-ROOM 



136 Xcvens 1ball 

own handwriting, giving in full his various reasons for leaving 
the country. Grahme has endorsed it himself, " King's reasons 
from Rochester," and it is printed in Echard's History of Eng- 
land. Three letters from James II., on the same date, but not 
in his handwriting, are worth looking at. One is addressed to 
Chaffinch, and directs him to give Grahme his plate and "an- 
tiches" watch, three strong boxes, and the other plate belonging 
to the little chapel below stairs at St. James's. The others are 
written with an eye to business. He says to Sir Benjamin 
Bathurst : 

" I have ordered James Grahme to consult with you about 
securing my shares in the East India and Guinea Companies." 

Look also at this letter to Grahme from James II., in a dis- 
guised hand. It is docketed, "Mr. Banks' first letter after his 
going to Oxford"; Mr. Banks being the King, and Oxford 
meaning France. 

" Boulogne, January 4th, 1689. 
"I arrived safe here this day, and have but little to say to 
you at present, but that I am going on to Paris, from whence you 
shall heare from me when I arrive there. In the meanetyme go to 
my corrispondent that payd you some mony upon my account, 
and put him in mind of putting the rest of the mony I bad him 
put into your hands, that you may returne that, and what you 
had of myne in your hands, to me as soon as you can, I having 
present occasion for it, and pray remember me to your friend 
with whom I was to have been if I had stayed. Lett me know 
a little newse." 

A considerable number of the letters are written in cipher, 
but many are easy to interpret, as we possess the original key. 
Tattered and worn to the last degree, it is partly in Lord Middle- 
ton's handwriting and partly in Colonel Grannie's, who labels it 




137 



s Hevens Iball 



thus : " My Oxford Cipher." I need only show yon one example 
of these letters. 

" June ye yd. 
" Mr. Chapman's [i.e., Colonel Gra lime's] note was shewed 
to Mr. Banks [King James], who assures you of his friendshipe. 
When you goe out o' town he would be glad if you could leave 
some directions about transmitting the accounts mentioned. 
There will be no need of sending EWQZHQQHAI [Sir John 
Narborough, Commissioner of the Navy] except they relate to 
yeFCPNG A W O O 1 [Dutch Wans]. None can love you 
more than 10 [Middleton]." 

Other aliases applied to King James throughout this corre- 
spondence are, "Your Lawyer," " iq," and "The Knight." 
Colonel Grannie is alluded to as " Sir Humphrey Pallsworth," 
"Sir Paull," "Mr. Partridge," and "Chapman"; Turner, the 
deprived Bishop of Ely, as "Sir Jasper"; David MacAdam, a 
notorious intriguer, as "Jo Brown" ; King Louis XIV., as " 13" : 
King William as " 17," and so on. Alas ! the " Grand Master of 
the Jerkers," "the coffee woman," "the Thracian " (possibly 
Kettleby), "Lord what-d'ee-call-him," and several others, must 
ever remain creatures of mystery, for the cipher key does not 
disclose their identity. When the key is present, cipher language 
is all very well, but it must be remembered that two hundred 
years ago slang was even more indulged in than at the present 
day. What, then, can be made of such letters as this from Lord 
Gower to Grahme ? 

"The Cracovian peer pretends to great information, and 
assures us that Augustin's measures will not hinder Stanislaus 
from having all his friends about him. Lord Shatterino has left 
my Lady to treat all the tradesmen, and being a man of method 
has committed to writing every day's bill of fare, and the 




139 



ho QLevens 1ball 

company for it. The Butcher, the Baker and the Fruit woman dined 
to-day, and the Chandler, Shoo-maker and another to-morrow." 

One also, from Lord Bolingbroke, might easily be misunder- 
stood in parts; but when he remarks "The Queen is well, 
though the Whigs give out that she is a percher," we know that 
no disrespect was intended, "percher" being at that time the 
slang for "being in a dying condition." 

Metcalfe Grahme, nephew to Colonel Grahme, served at one 
time as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough, and fought at 
Blenheim, Ramillies, and Malplaquet. Picture Colonel Grahme's 
pride and satisfaction, and what exciting memories such descrip- 
tions as these must have revived of his own past exploits. 
Metcalfe writes from Blenheim : 

"After a hot despute we have obtained an entire victory. 
We have taken twenty-seven battalions of foot, and twelve 
squadrons of dragoons besides other prisoners. The French are 
weaker by this battle by 30,000 men." 

Here is his account of Ramillies : 

" Our successes are beyond imagination. A large country 
has fallen to us in consequence of one battle. Never was victory 
more easily got, or better followed. They stayed not long 
enough to make the slaughter great, but the closeness of the 
pursuit has made amends. . . . The marshal retired with so 
much precipitation that he left all his sick and wounded, 120 
cannon, 40 mortars, 4000 barrels of powder, 15,000 sacks of corn 
and other provisions for four months. . . . My Lord is very 
civil, but it is hard to make one's fortune by so cowardly an 
enemy, for we have no vacancies made by the battle in the Eng- 
lish horse." 

After Malplaquet, Metcalfe had little time for letter-writing. 
He was obliged to put spurs to his horse and make for England 




THE GARDENS, LEVENS HALL 



MI 



142 Xevcns Iball 

with utmost speed, for to his care were entrusted the despatches 
announcing the victory. Amongst them was a letter to Godol- 
phin, then High Treasurer, from Marlborough, who wrote : 

" I have not strength to do anything but that of letting you 
know we have had this day a very murdering battle. . . . 
Mr. Grahme, the bearer, is a very brave young man, and one of 
my aides-de-camp. He will give you an account of the action." 

I only wish there was time to show you the number of 
other interesting letters locked up here, but we must hasten on 
through the rest of the house, or we shall see nothing of the 
garden. 

From room to room we wander, commenting on the 
stamped leather, the tapestry, or panelling that adorn each one. 
I will point you out where Bishop Ken slept whilst Grannie's 
guest ; also the Servants' Hall, panelled in oak, and the old 
kitchen with its dresser still glittering with the pewter dishes 
and plates that were used at Grahme's table. 

And so we turn into the garden. This seems indeed a 
case of Nature collaborating with man in the creation of a work 
of great perfection ; when one, after infinite labour, pauses to 
gaze on his inspiration of form and colour, the other by adding 
warmth and rain and sunshine crowns his efforts and surpasses 
human expectation with amazing results. So rare a combination 
of peculiar beauty, intermingled with a certain grotesque charm, 
rarely leaves the stranger quite unmoved, for the garden seems 
fairly bewitched. Great fantastic forms cut in yew and scattered 
about at intervals rise before us as far as the eye can see ; here a 
peacock, there an archway, now a huge umbrella, a lion and 
crown, a colossal helmet ; these and sundry creatures of mar- 
vellous proportions, separated in some cases by little trailing 
branches of roses, stand out in their deep-green foliage erect and 




VIEW OF THE HALL FROM THE GARDENS 



143 



144 Xevens Iball 

clear against the blue September sky. And what a glorious car- 
pet lies beneath them, luxuriant, fragrant, and gorgeous as Na- 
ture only can paint it ! Pansy, fuchsia, marguerite, lily, salvia, 
bergamot, pink, they grow side by side in apparently artless pro- 
fusion, whilst the soft autumn breeze gently sways them to- 
gether, a living mass of brilliancy. Large pots tilled with flowers 
are dotted about, shrubs of barbary are glowing in the distance, 
whilst purple clematis, jasmine, and creeping nasturtiums clam- 
ber up the old house, and pertly attempt an entrance at the 
windows. Walking amongst the gay flowers in and out of the 
beds, we pass on thence through the rest of the garden, where 
high beech or yew or holly hedges encompass us on either side. 
Past the yew arbour, shaped like a judge's wig, with a curious 
portrait of Grahme hanging amongst the branches ; past the old 
sun-dial ; treading all the while on soft green turf walks, with 
avenues of old apple-trees and little low hedgerows of York and 
Lancaster roses growing freely beneath. And so we reach the 
great square bowling-green, where men and women still take 
their pleasure on the ground where former generations have 
delighted to play ; then we are pacing the long terraced walk, 
with its varied border and tall background, in which hollyhocks, 
sunflowers, sweet-pea clumps, scarlet dahlias, marigolds, and 
masses of creepers form important features, and fairly hide the 
grey stone walls that skirt the garden. At last 1 see you pause 
in bewilderment over some weird, contorted figures of box, 
which form a complete circle round a small rose garden. Are 
they fish, flesh, or fowl ? Neither. It is Queen Elizabeth and 
her maids of honour these quaint little bushes are striving to 
imitate ; this one, see, has a ruff and crown ; uncover and bend 
to the Virgin Queen ! 

Colonel Grahme is the maker of Levens Garden. Desiring 
in his turn to leave some mark, he obtained the assistance of the 



Xevens Iball 145 

gardener at Hampton Court, Beaumont by name, and under his 
superintendence all that you see was planned and laid out. No 
doubt, like other Elizabethan mansions of the period, Levens had 
already its pleasance and formal garden and bowling-green ; but 
"topiary" work was hitherto an unknown art to English gar- 
deners. Describing the reaction in taste which took place in 
gardening during the early years of George III. 's reign, Lord 
Stanhope writes in his History of England: 

"So complete has it proved, that at present throughout the 
whole of England there remains perhaps scarcely more than one 
private garden presenting in all its parts an entire and true sample 
of the old designs : this is at the fine old seat of Levens, near 
Kendal. There, along a wide extent of terraced walks and walls, 
eagles of holly and peacocks of yew still find with each return- 
ing summer their wings clipped and their talons pared. There a 
stately monument of the old promenoirs — such as the Frenchmen 
taught our fathers, rather, I should say, to build than plant — 
along which, in days of old, stalked the gentlemen with periwigs 
and swords, the ladies in hoops and furbelows, may still to this 
day be seen." 

Ah ! my friend, I might chatter on for hours about this gar- 
den, and I might relate stories of Colonel Grahme and his 
descendants, 1 might unearth mysteries and dig up forgotten 
scandals connected with his troubled times, and I might make 
him out in truth little better than his contemporaries. And why 
need 1 make him any worse ? Rather let the garden he made 
and loved be the only lasting witness of the man's life and tastes; 
let his memory remain unsullied amid the sweetness of such 
surroundings. They form a stainless monument which many 
may envy and none can destroy ; and these flowers, with their 
dear faces upturned, shall be left, humble supplicants that 
Heaven's mercy may fall on him, as well as on us. 



146 



Sevens Iball 



Here we have arrived at the same big gateway we first 
entered : on the opposite side of the road the Park is stretched 
out in the distance. Its beauties bid fair to equal house and gar- 
den : oak avenues run along it from end to end, deer lie scattered 
about the bracken ; the Kent, with banks o'erhung by trees of 
changing foliage, winds in and out of the valley. Ramble about 
if you will at your leisure, or else proceed on your journey, for I, 
alas! must leave you ! And so we turn our backs the one on the 
other, both going forth to explore a different world, a rough and 
uneven path in store for each ; but if in the unknown future we 
meet not at Levens, our shadows may yet cross and recross 



again. 



Who can tell ? 




flftount EfcGcumbe 



'47 



i<M 




THE EAST FRONT OF MOUNT EDQCUMBE HOUSE 



MOUNT EDGCUMBE 



BY LADY ERNESTINE EDGCUMBE 

PERHAPS there are few among the "stately homes" of 
England more widely known than that of the Earl of 
Mount Edgcumbe. This arises, not only from its own 
beauty, but from the fact that it is situated close to one of the 
chief naval ports of the kingdom. The wooded peninsula called 
Mount Edgcumbe forms the western side of far-famed Plymouth 
Sound, and the largest man-of-war when entering Hamoaze (the 
inner harbour where are the Royal Dockyards) must pass within 
a stone's throw of the gardens. 

The first sight that greets the sailor returning from a three 
years' commission spent, perhaps, on the "West Coast," or of 
the soldier returning from India, is this peninsula, woods crown- 
ing its steep red cliffs, the trees growing down so close to the 
water's edge that they almost dip their boughs into the blue 

waves (for they are blue), and the deer-park with its hills and 

149 



15° fIDotmt JE&gcumbe 

valleys diversified by clumps of pinasters and Scotch firs, and old 
thorn trees in blossom, or, if the season be autumn, the bracken 
glowing red and gold in the sunshine. 

Of late years, too, when many great ocean steamers call at 
Plymouth, Mount Edgcumbe must have dwelt in the recollec- 
tions of many as their last vision of the Old England they have 
left "it may be for years and it may be for ever " — or gladdened 
the returning emigrant or Cornish miner whom fortune has 
favoured or who has come to the conclusion that a struggle at 
home is preferable to speculative wealth in exile. 

From a ship's deck the fallow deer can be seen, dotted over 
the short turf, and, with a good glass, even the multitudinous 
rabbits can be discerned — a sight which must have aroused the 
sporting instincts of generations of middies. And, talking of 
middies, it is to be hoped that they have forgiven the notice 
which a former Lord Mount Edgcumbe is said to have had placed 
at the lodge in retaliation for some youthful escapade : " No ad- 
mission for dogs or midshipmen " ! 

The deer-park existed long before the house, and dates from 
the reign of Henry VIII., when Sir Piers Edgcumbe obtained a 
royal licence to empark it. There is an old map of that date, re- 
produced by Lysons, showing an empty space inclosed by a 
gigantic fence, but containing no building. Lord Mount Edg- 
cumbe traces his descent and derives his second title from the 
Valletorts of Trematon Castle, who were lords of the manor at 
the time of the Domesday Survey, and from whom the district 
round Mount Edgcumbe still retains the general name of the 
Tithing of Valtershome. From them it passed, by marriage or 
inheritance, successively to families named Stonehouse, Bigbury, 
and Durnford. West Stonehouse was the name of an adjoining 
village which was destroyed by the French in the fourteenth 
century, while East Stonehouse still flourishes on the opposite 




IN THE ITALIAN GARDEN, MOUNT EDQCUMBE 



151 



fIDount je&ocumbe 153 

side of the estuary as one of the "Three Towns," being situ- 
ated between Plymouth and Devonport. 

Sir Piers Edgcumbe, made Knight of the Bath by Henry VII. 
in 1480, and Knight Banneret at the battle of the Spurs in 1513, 
by his marriage with Joan, daughter and heir of James Durnford 
of East Stonehouse, acquired the estates of his wife's family on 
both sides of the Tamar ; and his son, Sir Richard, knighted in 
1 s 37, began to build Mount Edgcumbe House in the first year of 
Queen Mary (1553), exactly two hundred years after the older 
residence, Cotehele, came into the family on the marriage of Wil- 
liam Edgcumbe with Hilaria, the heiress. 

Travellers visiting the place must cross the water by ferry 
from Stonehouse to Cremyll Beach, close to the lodge, from 
which a broad grassy slope leads straight up to the house. Not 
many years ago a fine double avenue of elms flanked the ap- 
proach, but successive storms have nearly demolished it, and not 
many veterans survive. Their youthful successors, however, 
chiefly Spanish chestnuts, have grown with surprising quickness, 
and are beginning to replace them. 

The Lower Gardens, on the left of the entrance lodge, appear 
to have existed from very early times. A collection of water- 
colour drawings, by Badeslade (1717), shows the "wilderness" 
planted with clipped hedges of laurel and ilex, displaying vistas 
and inclosing smooth lawns on which gaily dressed lords and 
ladies disport themselves with music, dancing, flirting, and fen- 
cing, or enjoy open-air refections attended by negro servants. In 
one is represented the still existing centre part of a Garden 
House, to which the second Earl added wings with sitting- 
rooms, where he and his daughter Emma, afterwards Countess 
Brownlow, spent much of their time, entertained visitors, and 
transacted business. 

This is in the "English" garden — scarcely well named, as 



154 flDount £t>gcumbc 

almost all the vegetation is foreign or even tropical. Here are 
palms (Chamceropes) thirty feet high, great trees of Magnolia 
grandiflora, which flower abundantly, cork trees, bamboos, and 
a splendid cedar of Lebanon ; while camellias, Mediterranean 
heath, and other flowering shrubs ornament the wide spaces of 
turf. 

Close to this is the " French " garden, more primly laid out 
with flower-beds, gravel paths, arbours, and trellis-work sur- 
rounding a fountain ; the old hedges inclosing it having now 
grown into huge ilex trees, one of which is of remarkable circum- 
ference and height. 

The "Italian" garden is celebrated for its numerous and 
splendid orange trees, said to be— and probably with truth— the 
finest in England, and even superior to those in the gardens of 
the Tuileries. Be this as it may, they are certainly magnificent 
specimens, and some of the trees must be more than a hundred 
and fifty years old, having been brought from Constantinople by 
Richard, second Lord Edgcumbe, when, as a very young man, he 
was sent on his travels to keep him out of mischief. They are 
remarkably healthy, and, in due season, are white with blos- 
som or golden with fruit. In the winter they find refuge in 
the orangery, a fine building erected in the last century from the 
designs of Lord Camelford of Bocconnoc. Spacious as was the 
orangery, it had to be considerably enlarged some years ago, and 
the trees continue to outgrow it. The handsome marble fountain 
in the middle of this garden was a present from Lord Bess- 
borough to Richard, second Earl, to whom, as well as to his 
daughter Emma, he had stood godfather. 

At a point facing the entrance of the harbour is a battery and 
a small blockhouse, which, with a similar one on the opposite 
side of the Narrows, was built in anticipation of the Spanish 
Armada. Doubtless they would have given Medina Sidonia a 




THE ITALIAN GARDEN, SHOWING SOME OF THE FAMOUS 
ORANGE TREES 



'55 



156 flDount je&flcumDc 

warm reception had he tried to carry out his proposal to annex 
Mount Edgcumbe. Should there be any truth in this oft-repeated 
story, it is probable that the Spanish commander (whose view of 
the place must have been both distant and hasty during his 
hurried passage up Channel) was Sir Richard's guest when, after 
the arrival of Philip II. in 1554, the good knight entertained the 
admirals of France, Spain, and Flanders, and that then and there 
Sidonia resolved that his host's fair domain should be his per- 
quisite when England was conquered. Richard Carew, writing 
in ib02, describes the blockhouse as " planted with ordnance," 
which " with their base voices " greeted "such guests as visited 
the house " ; but if it ever fired a round-shot it must have been 
directed at its twin over the way, when Plymouth fought for the 
Parliament and Mount Edgcumbe for King Charles. 

The present battery was renovated by the first Earl when 
Port Admiral, and remounted with twenty-one guns, taken out 
of a French frigate. On these guns may still be seen an anchor, 
surmounted by the cap of liberty, and " R. F. An II me Ruelle." 
Their " base voices " have constantly been called into requisition, 
as appears from a curious manuscript book containing a register 
of salutes fired. Every guest received salutes on " landing " and 
"going off," and the number of guns was regulated by their 
rank. A prince received twenty-one guns, a duke or archbishop 
nineteen, a bishop or earl fifteen, while a foreign nobleman is 
credited with fifteen, and an esquire with eleven. Fifteen guns 
regularly commemorated the anniversary of the " Popish Con- 
spiracy," and forty-two that of the King's accession. The entries 
for one year (1767) record the discharge of no less than 345 
rounds ! 

This noisy hospitality has ceased, but the old guns still 
testify to their owner's loyalty on her Majesty's birthday or the 
landing of any royal personage. 




157 



158 flDount i£&GCumbe 

Some thirty years ago a casemated fort was built here, and 
the private battery was mounted on its terraced roof, the old 
blockhouse thereby losing sight of the sea for ever. No more 
charming spot on which to spend an hour on a summer's evening 
could be found. On the right some yacht or warship sleeps at her 
moorings on the deep waters of the small bay called Barn Pool, 
which reflect the rocks of Raven's Nest and the hanging woods, 
crowned by the " Ruin," which, though constructed at a time 
when ruins were fashionable, from the remains of a fallen obelisk 
and some old granite-work, is now of respectable antiquity, and 
forms a conspicuous and picturesque object in the landscape. On 
the left is the busy harbour, the massive walls and green copper 
roofs of the Victualling Yard, Mount Wise, and Devonport ; while 
in front is the whole expanse of Plymouth Sound, the Break- 
water, with a squadron of Queen's ships at anchor inside it, and 
countless merchantmen and steamers at rest or in motion ; Stad- 
don Heights, crested by a great fortification, and dotted with the 
white tents of some camp of instruction ; and Drake's Island, 
between which and the mainland lies a fleet of yachts, while 
beyond it the grey mass of the old Citadel and the Hoe recall 
ancient glories. The whole scene is enlivened by constant move- 
ment : if you are fortunate, a great battleship — perhaps the 
Magnificent— may pass majestically in or out, within easy hailing 
distance, or a torpedo boat flash past at lightning speed ; excur- 
sion steamers, gay with bunting and crowded with "trippers," 
hurry by, the sound of their noisy bands mellowed by the 
intervening water; the boys' training brigs, with all sail set, 
creep across the Sound, endeavouring to reach their anchorage 
for the night before the breeze has completely died away, and 
envying the racing yachts, down to the little half-raters, whose 
great sails seem to waft them along over the tide without a 
breath of air. 




THE OLD HALL OR SALOON, MOUNT EDQCUMBE HOUSE 



159 



flDount ]£c>GCiimbe 161 

Then there are red-sailed Plymouth trawlers or Mount's Bay 
luggers drifting on as best they can, and boats— boats without 
end ! Racing cutters from the training ships, practising for the 
Regatta, their eager coxswains bending themselves double to 
each stroke of the oars ; officers of the garrison in canoes or four- 
oared gigs ; men and boys, women and girls, sailing, rowing, 
splashing, laughing, and talking as only West-country folk can 
talk, — the whole population seems to have taken to the water ! 

And young Tommy Atkins, freshly recruited from some Mid- 
land village, even he must be aquatic ; and certainly a special 
Providence watches over him. In his red jacket, which contrasts 
brilliantly with his green boat (for he generally hires a green 
boat), he stands up, jumps about, playfully rocks from side to 
side, hoists a sail, makes the sheet fast and sits on the lee 
gunwale — in short, does everything in the world to drown him- 
self; but, happily, accidents are rare, and he adds greatly to the 
gaiety of the scene. 

But we have lingered too long in the gardens, and must now 
walk up the hill to the house. The oldest part consists of the 
central Hall and four flanking towers. To this successive gener- 
ations have made additions, always increasing it in length rather 
than in width, as it stands on a somewhat narrow platform, at the 
back of which the hill rises abruptly ; and this length makes the 
house appear larger than it is. None of the rooms are of great 
size ; but the old Hall, or Saloon, is very lofty, and an admirable 
music-room. The Drawing-room, or "Gallery," occupies the 
whole ground floor of the east front, has a lovely view over part 
of the Sound, and is a very bright and charming room. The 
Library, separated from the Saloon by the Billiard-room, is large 
and well proportioned : it was built by George, first Earl ; and his 
son added the Dining-room, ingeniously fitting it into a limited 
space, which obliged him to make it oval. The effect is unusual 



1 62 flDount EbQcumbe 

and good. On the walls hang family portraits by Sir Joshua 
Reynolds, Sir Peter Lely, and Mascall, going back in unbroken 
succession to Colonel Piers Edgcumbe of the Civil Wars. 

The house has no pretensions to magnificence, nor has it any 
great beauty or regularity of design ; yet it is a dignified and very 
"livable" home, not unworthy of its situation and surround- 
ings. The old arched granite entrance doorway, however, 
deserves special mention, being a fine specimen of sixteenth- 
century architecture. 

Among the portraits mentioned, three generations are by 
Reynolds, who was often a guest at the house. As a boy of 
twelve he and the artistic young " Dick," afterwards second Lord 
Edgcumbe, painted a clever portrait of Parson Smart, Vicar of 
Maker, in Cremyll Boathouse on a piece of sailcloth. In 1740, 
Lord Edgcumbe introduced him to Commodore Keppel, who 
gave him a passage to Italy in the Centurion, thus enabling him 
to study in Rome, where he purchased the fine marble busts of 
Roman Emperors now in the Saloon. Sir Joshua's receipt for the 
payment of the expenses he incurred is preserved. 

The family being staunch adherents of the Stuarts suffered 
much for their loyalty. The Parliamentarians, during the siege 
of Plymouth, unsuccessfully assaulted the house, May 1, 1644, 
and two summonses for its surrender are extant, one signed by 
Lord Warwick ; but it held out until May, 164s, after which 
comes a long record of sequestrations and imprisonments inflicted 
on Colonel Edgcumbe by Cromwell. 

The " Upper Garden " above the house contains many beau- 
tiful flowering trees and shrubs, and is charming, though shorn 
by the blizzard of its chief glory, — a grand group of cedars, — while 
the parterres on the east front (formerly the Bowling-green), 
embellished with statues and two picturesque stone pines, make 
a bright foreground to the view over the Sound. 




1 63 



1 64 flDount !£&0cumbe 

From the house a terraced drive, two miles long, is carried 
round the side of the hill. Passing through a wood, called the 
"Amphitheatre" from its shape, it emerges into the park above 
the "Ruin,'" and enters what was the "Beech Wood" until 
the blizzard destroyed it. The " Blizzard in the West," that 
celebrated storm of March, iSqi, an easterly hurricane combined 
with a snowfall of unexampled severity, is a kind of era in Devon 
and Cornwall, and events are dated from it as having occurred 
previously or subsequently. The spectacle afforded by this par- 
ticular wood was extraordinary : hundreds of great beeches lay 
prostrate up the hill, their enormous roots upreared, with earth 
and stones adhering to them ; and weeks elapsed before the roads 
could be made passable. 

Leaving the Deer-park by another gate, the drive now takes 
the name of "South Terrace," and, in wintry weather, transports 
one into Italy. No cold blasts touch this favoured spot, which 
for nearly a mile is planted with evergreen trees and shrubs from 
the crown of the hill to the verge of the cliff. 

Here the road winds past walls of laurel, laurestinus, 
and arbutus, the sea sparkles through the pine branches, and 
the sunlight gleams on polished camellia leaves and bright- 
ens the duller-hued foliage of the cork, ilex, or Benthamia. 
Then, by a sudden transition, it passes into a grove of giant 
pinasters, and, re-entering the Deer-park, ascends the hill to 
Maker Church. 

Space forbids a description of the delightful "zigzag" paths 
above and beneath the Terrace, but Picklecombe Fort, on the 
cliff below it, must be mentioned : strengthened and modernised 
since its erection in 1848, it defends the entrance to Plymouth 
Sound with its forty large guns in casemates. Indeed, both park 
and outlying woods bristle with fortifications, and the ode written 
last century by the parish clerk, — 




VIEW OF PLYMOUTH AND DRAKE'S ISLAND 



16 5 



1 66 flDount E^ocumbe 

"Mount Edgcumbe is a pleasant place, 
It looketh on Hamoaze, 
And on it are some batteries 
To guard us from our foes," — 

is truer than ever. 

The church of Maker (the name of the parish) is chiefly temp. 
Henry VII., and is distinguished for its fine tower, which can be 
seen for miles round, formerly a signalling station, and still a 
noted sailing mark. It is outside the upper lodge gate, beyond 
which are drives through the fishing villages of Kingsand and 
Cawsand, round Penlee Point, Rame Head, and the grand sweep 
ofWhitsand Bay. 

Among the traditions connected with the church is that of the 
Lady Mount Edgcumbe who was interred when in a trance, and 
being roused by the sexton trying to steal her ring, rose up, 
walked home, and survived many years. 

The time when wrestling matches used to attract country 
people from far and near to Maker Church Green is long past ; but 
those now living can remember an episode of the old smuggling 
days, when the vicar, having taken the rural dean to the top of 
the tower, espied twenty-three kegs safely lodged in the gutter 
between the church roofs ! Of course they looked the other 
way. and it is said that next morning there was a keg at the 
vicarage door ! From the church there is a grass drive round the 
top of the park,— a tempting place for a gallop, and equally pleas- 
ant for the rabbit shooter, or the admirer of English park scenery 
backed by the wide ocean. 

At the south-eastern point, overlooking the "Terrace," is the 
"Kiosk,"' a summer-house commanding a splendid view, and 
always resorted to when any movements of the fleet are antici- 
pated, or friends arrive and depart by "Orient" or "P. & O." 
Many a greeting and farewell have been waved from its 





LOOKING SEAWARD FROM THE DEER-PARK 



I6 7 



1 68 fIDount jgfcgcumbe 

windows. Visitors are generally shown this first, as the unex- 
pected sight of such a view and the position of the Kiosk on the 
verge of the evergreen-clothed hill descending precipitously to 
the sea is striking. 

The panorama from the top of the park embraces, on the 
south and east, Cawsand Bay, where the fleet lay before the 
Breakwater was built, sheltered by Penlee Point ; the Eddystone. 
like a needle's point on the horizon ; the " Mewstone " rock-islet, 
and the receding headlands of Devon ; the Breakwater and 
Sound, with the forts and cliffs of Staddon. On the north and 
west, Plymouth and Devonport are fair to see, with their numer- 
ous monuments and towers (though perhaps, as in other cases, 
"distance lends enchantment to the view "), backed by the blue 
Dartmoor tors, the dockyard and the harbour, extending to the 
double arch of the Royal Albert railway bridge where it spans the 
broad Tamar ; and then more blue hills show where the Cornish 
moors join with Dartmoor and continue the wild range of high- 
land westward, forming the backbone of Cornwall. 

As we look at the crowded Hamoaze it is with a feeling of 
pride, not unmixed with sentimental regret, that we now see it 
filled with mighty ironclads, twenty-knot cruisers, and lines of 
torpedo-destroyers, replacing the brave old wooden walls, most 
of which have now passed away, together with their prizes — 
such as the San Josef, Foudroyant, and others well remembered 
by those who have only attained to middle age. The training- 
ship and the gunnery-ship are about the only old line-of-battle 
ships left, and the Implacable and Conquistador the sole remain- 
ing trophies of the glorious old wars. 

Many thrilling yarns could doubtless be spun of these old 
warriors ; and, in describing the view over the Sound, attention 
should have been called to a small black speck under the opposite 
heights, now a mastless hospital hulk, but once a smart frigate, 




i6g 



i;o flDount J6t>gcumbe 

the Pique, navigated home from "North America by the late 
Admiral Rous without a rudder, and with a rock jammed into the 
hole it had made in her hull, which fell out into the dry dock 
when it lost the support of the surrounding water. 

If the sights we have attempted to describe are exceptional in 
a country retreat, the sounds are not less so ; but they serve to 
enliven, not to disturb its inmates, who scarcely notice the boom 
of the morning gun, the bugles sounding the reveille, or even 
that the foreign man-of-war, arrived overnight, has exchanged 
salutes at 8 a. m. with the Citadel and Port Admiral. "Nor is the 
sound other than pleasing of the bands on board ship and in bar- 
racks playing a quickstep at morning parade. Later in the day a 
distant roar may proclaim that the guns at Picklecombe, or on 
board a gunboat out at sea, are firing at a target ; a ship coming 
through the Narrows gives unearthly shrieks with her syren, or a 
mail boat sounds her whistle to summon the tender which is to 
take off her passengers. 

And close by, in the harbour, the throb, rattle, and thumping 
of the steam dredgers remind one of how actively the accom- 
modation for ships is being increased ; and in a neighbouring field 
the voices of the quartermasters are heard, a mile off, drilling 
the sailor boys. 

But now, this long digression ended, the house must be 
returned to by a road above the Amphitheatre, and this account 
of a place often mentioned and praised by abler pens must be 
brought to a close. But first it may be interesting to allude to 
the number of persons of historic interest who have, in different 
generations, been guests at Mount Edgcumbe. 

One of the earliest records of a royal visit is that of Cosimo 
de' Medici, Prince of Modena, whom Sir Richard entertained on 
his way to the Court of Charles II. The Saluting Book (which 
only refers to two or three years) mentions— among many others 




171 



i/2 HDount Efcocumbe 

— the Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland, Princess Amelia, 
the " Marquess Caraccioli," General Paoli, and Mr. and Mrs. 
Garrick. 

In 1 78 1, George 111. and Queen Charlotte (attended by Miss 
Burney) came from Saltram, which had been lent them by Lord 
Boringdon, and dined in the Saloon, the largest room then exist- 
ing, the decorations of which date from the first Lord Edgcumbe, 
who also planted the " Terrace," and has justly earned the grati- 
tude of his descendants. 

William IV. and Queen Adelaide stayed at Mount Edgcumbe 
before their accession ; and our gracious Queen has more than 
once honoured it by her presence, as have the Prince and Prin- 
cess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg during the 
three years when his Royal Highness was Commander-in-chief 
in the West, and other members of the Royal Family. 

Amelie, Queen of the French, when residing at Kitley used 
to visit the place with the Duchesse d'Orleans and the young 
Comte de Paris and Due de Chartres ; and the lamented Emperor 
Frederick, when Crown Prince, the Crown Princess, and their 
sons have more than once done so. The last occasion on which 
they came together was after the close of the Franco-German 
War ; and, by a singular coincidence, the deposed Emperor Na- 
poleon 111., with the Prince Imperial, had come from Torquay 
to luncheon two days before. 

The Empress of Austria, the King of Sweden, many other 
royal personages, and a host of distinguished visitors might be 
named— such as the Walpoles, Pitt, Nelson, and others — but 
they would take too long to enumerate. Had a "guest book" 
been kept it would be a history in itself ; but, until latterly, this 
has unfortunately not been done. When, further, we think of 
the many naval and military officers who have passed through 
the doors of the house since the days of Sir Francis Drake, and 



flDount j£t>3cumbe 173 

of the fact that the grounds have always been thrown open to 
the public on one day in the week, we may certainly say that 
Mount Edgcumbe must be among the best-known country places 
in England. 

Cremyll Passage, to which we must now return, can be very 
rough indeed, and many of the illustrious visitors of former days 
must have thought their enjoyment dearly bought by their suffer- 
ings in an open boat in wet and stormy weather. Perhaps now 
the departing guest may consider that the comfortable steam 
launch which conveys him across compensates him for the obso- 
lete honour of a salute from the Mount Edgcumbe Garden 
Battery "on going off." 



Milton Ibouse 



175 




WILTON HOUSE, THE ENTRANCE GATES 



WILTON HOUSE 



BY THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE 

WILTON HOUSE stands upon the site of the old Abbey, 
which, with the surrounding estates, was granted by 
Henry VIII., soon after the dissolution of the monas- 
teries in 1539, to William, first Earl of Pembroke. The Abbey 
having been pulled down, the house was rebuilt and completed 
during the reign of Edward VI. from the designs of Hans Holbein. 
Of this building only the centre of the east front remains, the 
greater portion having been destroyed, presumably, by the tire 
which took place during the life of Philip, fourth Earl. This 
nobleman rebuilt the house from designs by Inigo Jones, who, 
being ill at the time, deputed Solomon (or Isaac) de Caux to 
execute the work. The south front, and all the east front, 
except the centre portion of Holbein's design, now stand as a 

monument of Inigo Jones's work. 

177 



178 Milton Ibouse 

At the end of the last century the north and west fronts were 
" mangled " and rebuilt by James Wyatt. 

The house contains portraits of nearly every one of the suc- 
cessive Earls of Pembroke. 

That of William, first Earl, by Hans Holbein, a full-length 
portrait, hangs in the Library. He was born in [506, and was 
described by Aubrey as "a mad fighting young fellow" in his 
youth. He distinguished himself greatly as a soldier during the 
reigns of Henry VII., Henry VII!., and Edward VI. by quelling 
disturbances in Wales and the West Country ; and having been 
created Earl of Pembroke by the last-named King in 155 1, he 
further added to his military reputation by his defeat of the 
French at the battle of St. Quentin, in 1557, and his own armour 
and that of his illustrious prisoners adorn the entrance hall at the 
present time. He was one of the most powerful noblemen 
throughout the reign of Mary, and during that of Elizabeth, and 
died in 1S70. He had married Anne Parr, sister of Katherine 
Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII., and was succeeded by his son, 

Henry, second Earl, of whom there is unfortunately no por- 
trait at Wilton, who married Mary Sidney, sister of Sir Philip 
Sidney, who was a constant guest at Wilton, where the avenue 
under the trees of which he composed his Arcadia still re- 
mains. He died in 1601, and was succeeded by his eldest son, 

William, third Earl, the patron of William Shakespeare, to 
whom the latter is supposed to have dedicated his sonnets. A 
full-length portrait of this Earl, by Van Dyck, hangs in the Double 
Cube Room ; and a small painting of the same Earl on a panel, 
purchased by the present owner of Wilton, has, pasted on the 
back of it, an old parchment, on which is written the lines of 
Shakespeare which were believed to have been addressed to him, — 

" Your monument shall be my gentle verse, 
Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read ; 




'79 




THE DOUBLE CUBE " ROOM, WILTON HOUSE 



182 



IHIUlton "lbousc 



And tongues to be your being shall rehearse, 
When all the breathers of this world are dead; 
You still shall live (such virtue hath my pen) 
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men, 



and below, the following words: "William, Earl Pembroke, died 
suddenly April 10, 1630. When his body was opened in order 




THE HOLBEIN " FROMT OF WILTON HOUSE 



to be embalmed, he was observed (on the incision being- 
made) to lift up his hand. This circumstance may be de- 
pended upon as fact, having been related by a member of the 
family, and was considered by the faculty to afford strong pre- 
sumptive evidence that the distemper of which he died was 
apoplexy." He was Lord Chamberlain and Lord Steward to 
Charles I., and married a daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury: 
but, dying in 1630 without issue living, he was succeeded by his 
brother, 

Philip, fourth Earl, who had been already created Earl of 




THE CORNER ROOM. WILTON HOUSE 



I8 3 



1 84 TWUIton Ibonse 

Montgomery. He was Lord Chamberlain to Charles I., and 
forms the central figure of Van Dyck's celebrated picture of the 
Herbert family, which fills the whole of one end of the Double 
Cube Room, and which is the largest picture that that artist ever 
painted. This was the Earl in whose time a great portion of the 
house was destroyed by fire (which event he refers to in his 
speech in the House of Lords, when attainted for high treason) 




THE GREAT VAN DYCK IN THE ' DOUBLE CUBE" ROOM 

and who employed Inigo Jones to rebuild it. He died in 1640 ; 
and, his eldest son having died of smallpox a short time after 
his marriage with the daughter of the Duke of Buckingham, he 
was succeeded by his next son, 

Philip, fifth Earl, whose portrait, in addition to appearing in 
the big picture above mentioned, was painted by Van Dyck, and 
is hung in the ante-room to the Double Cube. He married (1st) 
Penelope, widow of Viscount Banning, by whom he had one 
son, William, who succeeded him ; and (2d) Catherine Villiers, 
by whom he had two sons, Philip and Thomas. He died in 
[669, and was succeeded by his eldest son, 




iss 



1 86 Wilton Ibouse 

William, sixth Earl, who died unmarried in 1674, who again 
was succeeded by his half-brother, 

Philip, seventh Earl, who married Henrietta de Queroualle, 
but also died in 1583 without male issue, and was succeeded by 
his only brother, 

Thomas, eighth Earl, whose portrait by Wissing hangs in 
the Single Cube Room. This Earl occupied many high positions 
in the state, including that of Lord High Admiral ; and it is re- 
markable that he carried the "sword of state" in three succes- 
sive coronations — viz., those of Anne, George 1., and George 11. 
Amid his multifarious public duties he found time to amass the 
great collection of antique statues, busts, and sculptures which 
now stand in the cloisters, and also the greater part of the 
collection of pictures which adorn the walls of the various state 
rooms. He died in 1733, and was succeeded by his eldest son 
(by his first marriage with Margaret Sawyer of Highclere), 

Henry, ninth Earl, whose portrait by Kneller hangs in the 
Single Cube Room. He married Mary, daughter of Richard, 
Viscount Fitzwilliam of Mount Merrion, County Dublin, and, 
dying in 175 1, was succeeded by his son, 

Henry, tenth Earl, who was a celebrated cavalry officer, 
and was the author of the book entitled Military Equitation. 
He established riding-schools at both his London and Wiltshire 
residences, and was a great patron and supporter of the "Haute 
Ecolc." Portraits of himself, and of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter 
of Charles, Duke of Marlborough, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, hang 
in the Library and in the ante-room. He died in 1704, and was 
succeeded by his only son, 

George Augustus, eleventh Earl, who served with the army 
in the Low Countries when Lord Herbert, and was subsequently, 
after his succession, appointed Ambassador at Vienna. He 
married (1st) Elizabeth, daughter of Topham Beauclerk ; and 




i8 7 



1 88 raiton Ibouse 

(2d) Catherine, daughter of Count Worenzow, and, dying in 
1827, was succeeded by his eldest son by his first marriage, 

Robert, twelfth Earl, who lived entirely abroad, and handed 
over the management of his Wiltshire estates to his half-brother, 
Sidney Herbert, afterwards created Lord Herbert of Lea. 





THE PALLADIAN BRIDGE, OVER THE RIVER NADDER 



The beautiful grounds, which contain more than seventy 
acres of mown lawn, were laid out by the eleventh Earl's second 
wife, nee Worenzow, at the beginning of the present century, 
and are universally admitted to be a triumph in landscape-garden- 
ing. The river Nadder runs past the south front of the house, 
dividing the grounds from the Park, and is crossed by the 
famous Palladian Bridge. 

Scattered about the gardens are several pavilions, three of 
which are deserving of notice. Holbein's Porch, which once 
formed part of the old portion of the house, and was designed by 
that artist, formerly stood within the quadrangle, and formed the 




iSg 



iqo Milton "ibouse 

main entrance, but was removed by James Wyatt when lie 
altered the north side of the house, and transformed the main 
entrance from the east to the north side. 

What is now used as the Park School, but was formerly 
called "The Grotto,'' shows a beautifully designed facade by 
Inigo Jones, containing very finely carved stone-work, in a 
perfect state of preservation. 

The " Casino," which is placed on an eminence flanked by 
trees, in the park, facing the house, was designed by Chambers, 
and is one of the best instances of his architecture. A little west 
of the Casino is a barrow, which is supposed to cover the 
remains of those who fell in the battle which took place there 
in 871 between King Alfred and the Danes, in which the former 
was defeated. 

A very remarkable column stands in the eastern portion of 
the lawn, formed of one piece of white Egyptian granite. It 
came from the Arundel collection, having been bought by Mr. 
Evelyn for Lord Arundel, at Rome, where Julius Caesar had set 
it up before the Temple of Venus Genetrix. This column was 
never erected since it fell in the ruins of old Rome until set up 
here. On the fillet at the base is an inscription, cut in Egyptian 
characters, signifying " ASTARTE." 

Through the northern portion of the grounds runs the river 
Wylye, dividing the lawn from the Kitchen garden. This river 
joins the Nadder some four hundred yards east of the park walls, 
and running through the meadows on its way to Salisbury, skirts 
George Herbert's Rectory at Bemerton ; and it is believed that on 
its banks, in this neighbourhood, Izaak Walton composed much 
of his work, The Compleat Angler. Both the Nadder and the 
Wylye contain trout and grayling, and no doubt the occupants 
of the old Abbey fully appreciated the supplies of fish which 
these rivers afforded them. 




igi 




1 92 




1 93 



194 Milton Ibouse 

In addition to those of Sir Philip Sidney, there are historical 
associations connected with Cardinal Wolsey, Edward VI., 
Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, and Charles I., "who did love 
Wilton above all places, and came thither every summer." 
Leaving the gardens, with their splendid cedars and other trees, 
a few words must be devoted to the interior of the house. The 
state rooms form the first floor of the south front, and are 
remarkable for the beauty of their decoration. The largest room 
is called the " Double Cube," which contains the large family 
picture by Van Dyck, and nine other pictures by the same artist. 
This room is beautifully proportioned and decorated, and the 
ceiling is by Signor Thomaso. Opening from this room we come 
to the Single Cube Room, which is exactly half the size of the 
Double Cube, and is decorated in much the same style. The 
ceiling here is by Signor Arpino. The pictures comprise fam- 
ily portraits by Van Dyck, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, 
Wissing, and W. Richmond. In the next room, which used to 
be called the Hunting Room, but which is now used as a study, 
are some quaint pictures, painted on the panels, by Tempesta, 
Junior, representing all sorts of sporting. This room occupies 
the south-west corner of the house, and with it ends Inigo Jones's 
architecture. The Library, which was built by James Wyatt, 
occupies nearly the whole west side, and contains a very old 
collection of books, many of them of great interest to the 
"bibliophile." Two very large canvases, one of Henry, tenth 
Earl, with his boy, afterwards eleventh Earl, and a huge boar 
hound, and the other of the same Earl's wife, by Sir Joshua 
Reynolds, occupy prominent positions on each side of the fire- 
place, flanking the before-mentioned portrait of William, first 
Earl, by Holbein. There are other portraits by Sir Joshua and 
Sir Peter Lely ; and in the ante-Library are two paintings, by 
Scott, of Lincoln's Inn Fields and Covent Garden. 




THE LIBRARY, WILTON HOUSE 



195 



196 



Milton Ibousc 



The windows of the Library look out upon the Italian gar- 
den, at the end of which a broad walk, hanked by tall trimmed 
yews, leads the eye to Holbein's Porch. 

The Dining-room looks to the north, and is another specimen 
of James Wyatt's modern Gothic architecture. It contains large 
decorative pictures by Snyder, Vansomer, Bassano, Procaccini, 




PEOPLE AT CARDS 

BY LUCAS VAN LEVOEN 



and Primaticcio. Two enormous fossil elk-heads are fixed on 
the high walls at each end of the room, and were brought from 
Ireland, where they were dug up from a bog. 

Returning to the south side, notice must be taken of some of 
the pictures in the rooms east of the Double Cube. In the first 
of these is a very good specimen of Lucas Van Leyden, in "Peo- 
ple Playing at Cards." An excellent portrait of Van Dyck, by 




'97 



198 Milton Ibouse 

himself, another of Philip, fifth Earl, and another of the Countess 
of Castlehaven, both by the same artist ; three portraits by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, a sea piece by Vandervelt, and one or two other 
pictures, complete the collection in this room. 

The next, the Colonnade Room, contains the famous " Four 
Children," by Rubens; a portrait of Edward VI., by Holbein ; a 
portrait of Titian, by himself; "An Old Woman Reading," by 
Rembrandt ; two sea pieces by Vandervelt, and a small picture by 
Giulio Romano. 

Opening out of this is the Corner Room, which contains so 
many interesting pictures that 1 am unable to mention all. But 
Holbein's portrait of Judge Moore, a beautiful landscape by 
Rubens, a "Madonna and Christ," by Andrea del Sarto (of 
which there is a replica in the Wallace collection), "Judith and 
Holofernes," by Andrea Mantegna, and a beautifully painted 
portrait of Prince Rupert when a young man, ascribed to Hon- 
thorst, but probably by Van Dyck, are perhaps the most note- 
worthy. From the east window of this room is a lovely view of 
Salisbury Cathedral, obtained by a "vista" cut through the trees 
and shrubs in the grounds and intervening meadows. 

In the next room are hung several good pictures, the most 
notable being "The Children of Henry VII.," by Mabuse ; two 
battle scenes by Borgognone ; "The Crucifixion," by Jarenus ; 
" Francis 11. and Charles IX.," by Zucchero ; and the diptych of 
"Richard II. and his Patron Saints." 

In the Sitting-room, which is situated in the centre of the 
east front, in the oldest portion of the building, hang the portrait 
of "Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke," by Marc Garrard; a 
drawing of "Cromwell, Earl of Essex," by Holbein ; two very 
good paintings by Pater, the " Battle of Pavia," by Holbein, and 
two Dutch landscapes with figures, by Velvet Brugel. 

The Cloisters, which surround the interior of the quadrangle, 




THE HOLBEIN PORCH 

FORMERLY THE MAIN ENTRANCE TO WILTON HOUSE 



199 




THE ITALIAN GARDEN, WILTON HOUSE 



202 XHHilton Ibouse 

contain the antique marbles and busts collected by Thomas, 
eighth Earl, many of which were purchased by him from the 
Mazarin and Arundel collections. One of the most remarkable 
objects is a basso relievo in old Greek mosaic tesselated work 
representing the Garden of Hesperides. Two statues by Cleo- 
menes, one of "Faunus with his leopard," and the other of 
" Cupid breaking his bow after his marriage with Psyche," are of 
great interest. The tomb of Aurelius Epaphroditus, which was 
brought from near Athens, and was presented to Cardinal 
Richelieu, is a wonderful specimen of ancient Greek carving, 
as is also an inscribed Altar of Bacchus. The statue of Jupiter 
Amnion is also remarkable. It was set up in a temple in Thrace 
by Sesostris. There are also over one hundred antique busts, 
including those of most of the Roman Emperors. 

It would be impossible within the limits of a short article 
to enumerate all the objects of artistic and historical interest 
with which Wilton abounds, and I have only attempted to give a 
brief description of an old English home which has survived the 
storms of some three hundred and fifty years. 



XonQleat 



203 




THE EAST AND NORTH FRONTS OF LONQLEAT 



LONGLEAT 



BY A. H. MALAN 



ONE particular charm about Longleat is that, with all its 
grandeur, it is essentially a home ; and having, since 
it was first built, known but one family, there is about 
the place all that individuality, arising out of continuity of occu- 
pation, which a mansion that has often changed hands cannot 
pretend to possess. 

August and imposing as may be the rooms and corridors, 
they are all habitable to a degree of luxurious comfort. Not 
excepting the Hall, where the general features carry the mind 
back full three centuries ; but the pilgrim is not on that account 
obliged to sit on the long form by the long table, facing an array 

of high-backed chairs, set, equally spaced, against the opposite 

205 



206 



Xongleat 



wall, as there are ordinary chairs grouped around ordinary 
tables, a sofa for the weary, a piano for the lively, and even a 
doll's-house is tolerated. 

Sir John Thynne, the builder, "flourished" in the last half 
of the sixteenth century. Becoming the purchaser of the manor 

as early as 1540, he did 
not begin to build until 
[567; meanwhile, like a 
wise man, sitting down 
to count the cost, and, 
as a prudent prelimi- 
nary, marrying Chris- 
tian Gresham, daughter 
of the Lord Mayor of 
London. Meanwhile, 
too, so many other 
things were happening ! 
Sir John had been stew- 
ard to the households 
of the Protector a n d 
the Princess Elizabeth ; 
been put in the Tower, 
with his frien d Sir 
Thomas Smith (previous and subsequent Secretary of State), 
and fined ; been commissioned by Queen Mary to be on the 
qui vivc should Philip of Spain land at Bristol ; he also had 
to apply his mind to sundry public affairs, such as the Council's 
instructions to the justices "to exercise their office, in such 
unsettled times, without slothfulness, nyceness, and folishe 
pytie." Between his official duties, however, he could find 
time to dabble in falconry, asking Thomas Howard to send him 
a " short-wynked " hawk in return for two casts of lanners 




SIR JOHN THYNNE 




207 



Xonglcat 209 

previously forwarded to the Duke of Norfolk, through Thynne's 
agency, from the Cheddar cliffs ; his Grace, who was then " oc- 
casioned to be a contry man and seke waies to recreate himself 
in passing away his time," having intimated to his '• very loving 
friend" that he " surelie sholde receve moche comfort" from 
such gifts. 

In 1565 Sir John lost his wife ; but, having the following year 
married again, he at once set to work to build what would prove 
to be "then, and perhaps still, the most magnificent country 
house in England," as Macaulay wrote, after inspecting a good 
many. Where he procured his designs is not known, but it has 
been supposed that he used those prepared for the Protector 
[Duke of Somerset], who had intended building himself a house, 
but escaped the necessity by being beheaded instead. Wild 
Darrell, presently, had some nasty remark to make, to the effect 
that Thynne had annexed other people's plans without paying for 
them ; but then Darrell may have been rather sore at having, in 
his habitually straitened circumstances, to find £<jo towards that 
loan to the Queen, which happened to be managed (1570), as to 
Wiltshire, by Sir John, as sheriff of the county. The loan in 
question must have been such a delicate and disagreeable task 
that this may have been partly the reason why, when, four years 
later, Elizabeth desired entertainment at Longleat, the ex-sheriff 
"felt unwell," and shirked the honour as far as might be; yet 
doing himself full justice as a host, when evasion was no longer 
possible, by presenting her Majesty with a jewel — "called a 
Phenix, set with one great emeralde, so other dyamonds and 
rubies, with an appendant peril at the same; it cost ^140" 
which, from the description, was apparently very much the sort 
of thing that Arabella Stuart is seen wearing in her hair, and on 
her throat, in one of her portraits here. 

The accounts for building terminate in 1578, ^8000 having 



210 XonQleat 

been spent — perhaps equivalent to about ,£80,000 of our present 
money. Two years later. Sir John would have been called upon 
to master a far more comprehensive charge from the Council, 
containing all manner of cautions and inquiries, even urging note 
to be taken " of all such as offend in wearing excess of apparel, or 
fail to appear in caps on Sundays and holy days." But he was 
luckily to be spared the formidable and risky task of pronouncing 
judgment on feminine attire, inasmuch as he passed away in the 
early part of is8o: and consequently it devolved on his heir to 
see to all such matters at his discretion ; as also, later on, to 
muster so many " musketts, calyvers, pikemen and bowmen," 
and to take heed that the beacon on Cley Hill was not fired 
" upon any lewde devise," when the agitation of those unsettled 
times culminated in the Armada panic. 

The outside of the house is not described, to save space, and 
because it is thought the photographs speak for themselves. 

On entering the Hall you face some old armour and weapons, 
part of which may have been worn in those days and part in Sir 
James Thynne's service, when, in 1041, Longleat was forcibly en- 
tered by the Roundheads under Sir Edward Hungerford. You nec- 
essarily note also the large hunting-scenes (in which the second 
Viscount and his friends appear), which were evidently designed 
to fill a large space, and answer that purpose well ; but there are 
still larger subjects by Wootton in the Chapel Corridor. On the 
front of the screen (which was erected by Sir John the younger) 
those carved and painted shields all indicate alliances of the 
family, except the three at the top, which were set up out of 
compliment to three friends of Sir John senior — namely, the Pro- 
tector, the third Earl of Sussex, and Lord Burghley. 

Let into the entablature over the fireplace, there is, besides 
the clock, a convenient dial and needle, communicating with a 
vane on the roof; so that, as he sits at breakfast (for breakfast is 




THE HALL, LONQLEAT, SHOWING ARMOUR AND HUNTING SCENES 



212 Xoncjleat 

sometimes served here), the master of the house can, according to 
the season of the year, pretty well guess whether there will be a 
favourable ripple on the trout-ponds, on which (sheltered) side of 
a cover the woodcocks will be found, or whether a southerly 
wind proclaims a hunting morning. 

From the Hall we may proceed to the left, into the South 
Corridor, where are to be found two highly decorated fourteenth- 
century Italian dower-chests, and a spinet of Queen Elizabeth, 
looking very like a Japanese cabinet on legs. Archways, here- 
from, lead into the private apartments ; among which the chate- 
laine's sitting-room is, as would be anticipated, eminently meet for 
a lady's use ; everything seeming light and bright, from the white- 
and-gold distempered walls to the chintz furniture covers. The 
room is none too large to take the semi-grand, but finds space 
for a casket of Marie Antoinette, as one of its conspicuous objects. 

With the exception of full-length pictures of Gustavus 
Adolphus and Robert Devereux, almost the whole of this long 
corridor appears given up to family portraits, among which are 
observed these and others : Maria Audley (Mytens), in a richly 
embroidered dress ; Joan Hayward, and her husband, Sir John the 
younger ; Catherine Howard, Lady Thynne ; also Lady Louisa 
Carteret, the connecting link between the Earls of Bath and the 
later marquisate. The portrait of the lady in the white dress 
with coloured scarf, holding a mandolin, represents Isabella Rich 
(daughter of Lord Holland), who made such a matrimonial mud- 
dle by marrying Sir James Thynne, when she might better have 
married Lord Thurles (afterwards Lord Ormonde), or better still 
have remained single ; preferring, as she did, an unfettered life 
with the Court at Oxford, where she could attend Balliol Chapel 
airily dressed as an angel, play practical jokes on the dons, and 
comport herself generally with more giddiness than grace. Her 
husband, Sir James, entertained Charles 11., in 1663, at Longleat. 




THE HALL, LONQLEAT, SHOWING SCREEN WITH CARVED SHIELDS 



213 



2I 4 



Xonoleat 



Why John Granville took the title from Bath is not apparent. 
Lord Weymouth may have done so partly because of his ances- 
tor, through his mother, and partly because Longleat is near 
Bath. The title Earl Granville was revived in a brother of a Duke 

of Sutherland, as a descendant 
of Jane Gower, daughter of John 
Granville, Earl of Bath. The 
Carteret title became merged 
in the Granville title, and was 
revived in Henry Frederick, 
second son of Louisa, Lady 
Weymouth. 

At the east end of this cor- 
ridor is the ante-Library, com- 
municating, to right, with the 
Green Library, to left with the 
Red ; and the homeliness of 
Longleat is well exemplified in 
both. In the Green Library, 
for example, are all four earliest editions of Shakespeare ; an 
early black-letter Chaucer (whose first editor was William 
Thynne, uncle to the builder) ; a folio edition of Diogenes 
Laertius, with a sentence on the first page in Ken's writing ; 
Halstead's Genealogies; a Thealma, with Isaak Walton's auto- 
graph ; a Grafton's Bible (1S41)— a royal gift to Sir John ; fine 
editions of the classics ; and a good deal of other literature 
besides. And above the shelves hang some of the early his- 
torical portraits, such as Henry VIII. , the Protector, and Thomas 
Seymour (all by Holbein) ; Wriothesley, Sackville, Lucius Carey 
(by Van Dyck), etc. Yet there is nothing whatever of the dry 
order of things about the well-shapen, two-bayed room ; on the 
contrary, a billiard-table and a stand of cues boldly beguile the 




LADY LOUISA CARTERET 




2I 5 



2l6 



Xongleat 



mind from too much erudition, and the lingering scent of bygone 
weeds wholly neutralises any musty aroma from the books. It is 
the same with the Red Library. Bookcases, and such pictures 
as those of Philip of Spain, James I., and a pleasing likeness of 

Arabella Stuart, there may be, 
savouring of the past ; but an 
equally pleasing portrait of 
Lady Catharine Thy n n e 
(who, by the way, rather 
looks, in the photograph, as 
if she were seated at the writ- 
ing-table, in a kind of high- 
backed chair), the Florentine 
inlaid work on doors, shut- 
ters, and shelves, and the 
general equipment in the way 
of furniture, are all up to date, 
and make this Library a most 
enjoyable morning- or draw- 
ing-room. Over the fireplace 
hangs Lord Chancellor Thurlow (by Sir Joshua Reynolds) in 
a glazed frame : a probable indication that the picture has been 
exhibited somewhere. 

Northwards through two small sitting-rooms. In one of 
them is a full-length portrait of the Duchess of Richmond (Van 
Dyck), in a black velvet dress, coronet on table, pearls in hair ; 
who, as Frances Howard (of Bindon), " one of the greatest, both 
for birth and beauty, in the land," having at first "gone a step 
backward " by marrying a Henry Prannell, presently went two 
steps forward by marrying Edward, Earl of Hertford, and, after his 
decease, Ludowick Stuart. Surviving the latter, the Duchess 
aimed at Royalty, but failed in that, her highest venture. She 




MARY VILUERS, LADY THYNNE 




217 



218 OLonoleat 

was half-sister to the second wife of that Sir Thomas Thynne 
whose first wife was Maria Audley. 

In the lower Dining-room, which is panelled in oak, are a 
good many more family portraits, of which at least the following 
must be mentioned : Sir John, the builder (painted by Holbein 
in 1555), " cetatis suce ss " (which would make him born in 151 1, 
not the usual date given), wearing a quilted doublet and a 
badge, holding a sword, and looking as though it would take 
a good deal to upset his equanimity. Near him, Louisa Carteret 
(Van der Bank), in a fancy dress worn at the Spanish Ambassa- 
dor's ball. "Tom of ten thousand" (grandson of the half-sister 
of the Duchess of Richmond), who wedded (1682) the greatest 
catch of the day, Lady Elizabeth Percy, and was left in the lurch 
by her on the wedding day. A poor enough bargain, in itself, 
for Thynne ; but, as all the world knows, he did not see the last 
of the matter then, being murdered shortly after by Konigsmark's 
agents in Pall Mall. Opposite his portrait (with a fine ebony 
sideboard between) is Lady Mary Villiers (Kneller), in a mar- 
vellously fresh-looking blue robe, who, as the widow of that Sir 
Thomas Thynne who was the father of the first Lord Wey- 
mouth, afterwards became Lady Landsdowne. She was the 
granddaughter of Charles II. 's creature, ChifFinch. 

The grand staircase is quite recent, having been reconstructed 
as lately as 1808 by Sir Jeffry Wyatville. It is a double stairs, 
very spacious and lofty, the domed roof having a central skylight, 
through which the sun sometimes streams on to the pictures in 
a not very desirable way. At the foot of the stairs stand two 
black bears, suggestive of two transmigrated black canons, come 
to guard the region where their brethren were laid to rest in 
days when Longleat was an Augustine Priory ; for it appears that 
in excavating the ground under the staircase, the discovery was 
made of a number of coffins containing the remains of some of 




THE DRAWING-ROOM, LONQLEAT 



2ig 



XortQleat 221 

the priors or canons. Snyder's " Bear-Hunt, and Stag-Hunt "; Ru- 
bens, wife, and child, representing the " Holy Family "; Sir Walter 
Raleigh (Zucchero); Robert Dudley, George Villiers, and the Duke 
of York (Lely) ; the original of Lodge's portrait of Arabella Stuart ; 
Bishop Fisher; Catharine of Portugal; and some Thynnes — 
these all adorn the walls of smooth-faced stone, and ought to 
receive attention on the way to the upper South Corridor. 

To our right, two state bedrooms, simply known as A and 
B, also contain their quantum of pictures ; among which are 
Frederick and Elizabeth, King and Queen of Bohemia (Hon- 
thorst), and "that gracious prince," Henry, son of James 1., 
(Zucchero), who "did mightily strive to do somewhat of every- 
thing," — including swimming the Thames so often, that those 
natatorial exploits perhaps had more to do with his untimely 
death than any machinations of Rochester. Outside these rooms 
is a picture of the house painted in mso (Dankertz), which shows 
the general appearance of the place to have been much as it is 
now, except for a coach-and-six in the foreground. 

The east end of this corridor leads into the New Drawing- 
room. This has one of those highly ornamental ceilings with 
which the late Marquis embellished so many of the rooms ; and 
the walls are draped with old embossed velvet, and have a frieze 
running along the top, illustrating the story of Circe (Cavalier 
Libri), brought from a Venetian palace; and there are "Camp- 
scenes" (Pinturrichio), the "Holy Family" (Titian), the "Virgin 
and Child " (Pellegrino), and a head by Raphael ; the folding-doors 
at the west end give an admirable peep into the Hall, showing the 
fine Tudor roof and shields on the screen even better than they 
are seen below. But nevertheless it rather suffers from the 
greater splendour of its neighbour, the Saloon. 

A touch of modern taste is imparted to the light-coloured 
Gobelin tapestry by dark plush borders serving as "mounts" to 



222 



Xcmgleat 



the hangings ; and bold lines do these perpendicular strips make, 
to enhance the length and breadth of the room. The marble 
chimneypiece (copied from one at the Doge's palace), supported 

by its huge 
A 1 1 a n t e s, is 
massive with- 
o li t being 
" heavy," and 
forms one of 
the chief fea- 
tures of this 
imperial apart- 
m e n t : it 
would form an 
excellent pho- 
t o g r a p h i c 
sculpture- 
study in itself, 
if viewed from 
the proper 
point as to 
lighting, and 
not merely in- 

THE LONG GALLERY, LONQLEAT C 1 U d e d ( H S 

here) in a general view of the whole. There is a table of Talleyrand ; 
a wonderful clock ; and a Dresden china temple, which no sane 
persons would touch if they could help it, still less venture to dust. 
Adjoining is the State Dining-room, reserved for parties ; 
wherein the caryatides of two more mantelpieces of white mar- 
ble confront each other, and the old Spanish stamped leather 
suffers its planished surface to be intruded upon neither by pic- 
ture nor by ornament save some silver sconces. 





223 



224 



Xonfllcat 



Return we to the head of the great stairs ; thence through 
the Hall Gallery, up to the higher storey, to go and see the Old 
Library— perhaps the most interesting part of the whole house, 

bhlu» alike from its 
contents a n d 
its a s s o c i a - 
tions. Situated 
at a corner, 
and run ning 
both ways, 
but farther on 
the east than 
the west side, 
this gallery, or 
corridor (it is 
really a series 
of attics all in 
one), contains 
Longleat's lib- 
rary of the time 
of the first 
Lord Wey- 
mouth, with 

THE LONG GALLERY, LONGLEAT, SHOWING FIREPLACE 3 d d J t i O 11 3 1 

volumes to the number of one thousand, which the said Lord 
Weymouth was permitted to pick out, at will, from among Ken's 
books, as an acknowledgment of his protracted hospitality to the 
Bishop. For when Ken was an undergraduate at "Univ.," he 
formed a friendship with Thomas Thynne, who was at "the 
House" ; and so it came about that in the former's case a Univer- 
sity degree was destined to be by no means the barren honour it 
often proves to some of us who wear the hood ; as without his 





THE OLD LIBRARY, LONQLEAT 

FOR TWENTY YEARS THE STUDY OF BISHOP KEN 



225 



226 ILoncjIcat 

Oxford life Ken would in all probability never have found such 
splendid isolation, when Bath and Wells should know him as their 
diocesan no more. 

This Old Library is very rich in controversial divinity (ibbo 
onwards), collected by Lord Weymouth and Ken ; and it also 
has a great variety of Civil War tracts. One section of it has 
been more recently stored with a very complete collection of 
pamphlets on the French Revolution. Of the more important 
manuscripts, one can but indicate a fraction : Wicliffs transla- 
tion of the Bible ; the Homilies of Origen on the Old Testament ; 
a Latin Psalter, fourteenth century ; a thirteenth-century Liber 
Pontificalis; a fifteenth-century translation of Bonaventure's Life 
of Christ, intended "for children that haven nede to be fedde 
with mylke of light doctrine, and not with sad meat of great 
clergy, and high contemplation " ; Registers of various abbeys ; 
The Temple of Glasse, attributed to Chaucer — the only manu- 
script known ; a very old Register of Glastonbury Abbey, made 
in 1 189; the Liber Rubens Bat lion ieu ; Leicester's Commonwealth. 
Then, too, partly here and partly in the muniment-rooms, are a 
multitude of original letters, valuable for their contents, but even 
more so for their autographs, including letters from Elizabeth to 
George Talbot (one of which with delicious informality begins, 
" My good old man ") ; several letters of Arabella Stuart ; one of 
Richard 111.; some of Strafford, the Protector, and Robert Dudley ; 
one of Amy Robsart ; one from Wolsey, announcing his degrad- 
ation to Gardiner, in autograph, and signed T. Cardinalis Ebor 
Miserrimns ; and a host of others. The whole collection is prob- 
ably unrivalled, except by the Hatfield papers ; and of it the 
Historical Commissioners state, in their report, that "it gives a 
wonderfully complete and vivid illustration of our civil, military, 
naval, and ecclesiastical history, and from the earliest times. Its 
value for historical purposes can scarcely be overrated." 







i nf A . „flj A, f: i.. 

||l!''^#l fi Sill 


•^ij^^^gjj 


- 






- 


^ , . • • ' f ■ ■ ■•■''■ '& 


« 












THE WINTER GARDEN, LONQL.EAT 













227 



228 Xongleat 

For twenty years that gentle but inflexible prelate, who 
reverenced his conscience more than his king, used this Library 
as his living-room and study, and thereby so consecrated it for 
all time that it would be sheer sacrilege to light the very best 
weed here, even in one of those secret hiding-places at the back 
of the bookcases. One can fancy the saintly non-juror sunning 
himself, of a winter's morning, in the deep shelf-lined recesses 
by the windows, among his books ; on a wet day taking exercise, 
amid his meditations, by pacing up and down the longer wing 
of his study ; on a fine day running up to the roof, between 
whiles, for a breath of air, and to gaze afresh on that fair scene, 
of gardens, lake, and wood, which afterwards so impressed 
George 111. that, on coming down from the leads, he expressed 
the sentiments of Sheba's Queen when the guest of Solomon. 
The third Lord Weymouth had come of age in 1754, and then 
laid out the gardens according to "Capability" Brown's ideas. 
He was created Marquis of Bath in 1789, in which year George 
111. and his Queen and a retinue of 128 persons visited Longleat, 
and were all lodged within the house, while thirty thousand 
Wiltshire men stood outside in the Park. 

Let us descend from these altitudes, to make better acquaint- 
ance with the scene below, by way of the east terrace, past the 
crimson and carmine flower-beds, to the lake edge. A good deal 
of wild life is to be seen here, almost touching the house. First 
there are the ducks, in large quantities — not a bird among them 
pinioned ; wild enough to startle anybody, as they rise with 
resounding quacks from beyond the fringing bullrushes, and then 
fly farther on, or back to one of the higher ponds ; or, tired of 
exercising their paddles on these home waters, take bolder flight 
over the hill to Sherewater. Then there are the coots, sulky and 
shy, and always keeping their distance ; and the moor-hens every- 
where, friskinsf their tails and skating over the water-lilies till a 




22g 



2;0 



Xongleat 



clear place suggests a dive. Lower down, swans manoeuvre in 
the open water, and herons lazily flap to and fro, with a purpose : 
extracting the big anodons from the mud, and bearing them off 
in triumph to the seclusion of a tree, there to snip the shells with 
their strong wedged beaks and devour the esculent contents. 
And the number of herons is sufficient to cause a considerable 
layer of broken shells to be found under any tree near, but across, 
the lake, that you may happen to inspect. 

Strolling along this walk, round by the boat-house and in 
through a shrubbery, you suddenly find yourself in the Winter 
garden, gay with all manner of flowers in geometrical box-edged 
beds ; with a terrace of mixed borders with trellised bowers of 
roses running along the path-side ; and reposeful with fountain- 
splash. No rude wind ever intrudes, but all is sweet-scented 
and seductive. A lovely spot to have tea in, out-of-doors ; with 
a convenient orangery running along one side in case of a 
vagrant shower. 

Then, crossing the head of the lake, and making for that 
view which everyone visits, a little detour may be taken to the 
left, into a bit of the park called the Grove ; for there grow some 
of the finest trees of their kind— particularly an oak of surprising 
girth and altitude, some gigantic limes, and some garden poplars 
termed " arbells." As we proceed, herds of deer are sure to be 
seen, seeming tame enough when broken up into small groups, 
but when in larger numbers, massing themselves into a circular 
laager with their horns outward at the approach of a stranger. 

Higher up is a grotto made of stones fantastically arranged 
round and over a trough (once served by a spring), and extend- 
ing some distance on either side of the basin. What possessed 
anyone to make it here is a mystery. The idea of a secret pas- 
sage from it to the house may be safely dismissed ; that is a too 
common tale, too often told for credence. Possibly it might 



Xongleat 231 

have been visible from the house before the trees grew up ; it is 
certainly older than a large ash whose main roots penetrate the 
masonry. 

The view from the Ridge, at the point known as " Heaven's 
Gate," is beautiful enough to have inspired Ken with all manner 






-^MM-i 



fA' y 




HEAVEN'S GATE" 

VIEW FROM THE RIDGE 



of exalted thoughts. In one direction the Park loses itself in 
Lord Cork's park at Marston, and consequently there is an ex- 
tended stretch of wooded knolls and glades not often met with. 
But the view is not so extensive as it seems ; Paget's monument, 
ahead, and Beckford's tower, on Lansdown, Bath, to the right, 
being about the limits of the held. 

To imbibe this view, and then be driven, by the Green drive 
and through the Aucombe woods to Crockerton pond, — deep, 
green, land-locked, and tree-fringed, — is to enjoy two very differ- 
ent samples of characteristic English scenery within half an hour ; 
that is to say, if using the private roads. But the public road 
from Horningsham to Warminster provides a very fair equivalent, 



232 Xonglcat 

passing as it does for a considerable distance through the same 
woods. Ponticon rhododendrons, azaleas, and patches of St. 
John's- wort there are in abundance ; and anywhere the wayfaring 
man, if tired or hot, can recline sub tegmine, without let from 
hedge or fence, seeing around him Nordmanns coning only at the 
top, and comely silvers, and other conifers, and deciduous trees, 
but never a Weymouth pine ; for though the Weymouth pine 
was introduced by the first Lord Weymouth from North America, 
the tree has the bad grace not to thrive here. 

And thus the road goes on, gradually trending downwards, 
till at last it emerges from the woods. And then, when stiff 
thorn-hedges and open fields and bare flinty Wiltshire downs 
suddenly present themselves, with a sort of rude shock it is 
quickly realised that you have passed beyond even the outskirts 
of Longleat the Magnificent. 



IRufforb Hbbe^ 



233 




RUFFORD ABBEY 



RUFFORD ABBEY 

BY LORD SAVILE 

THE Manor of Rufford was at the commencement of the 
twelfth century the fee of Gilbert de Gaunt. This Gil- 
bert was a grandson of Gislebert de Gaunt, a nephew of 
William the Conqueror, and his name appears on the roll of Bat- 
tle Abbey. Gilbert married Roesia, Countess of Lincoln, and 
was himself created Earl of Lincoln. On his deathbed, in the 
year 1148, he bequeathed Rufford to a colony of Cistercian 
monks from Rievaulx. The deed of gift, which is in Latin, is in 
a perfect state of preservation. It bears the seal of Gilbert, and 
runs as follows: "I, Gilbert de Gaunt, Earle of Lincoln, to all 
men and to all his children of the Holy Church, greeting. Know 
ye me to have given and granted, in perpetual alms, to the 

monks of Rievaulx, for the souls of my father and mother, and 

235 



236 TRuffort) Hbbep 

for the remission of my sins, my manor of Rufford, and whatso- 
ever I have there in domains, to make an abbey of the order of 
Cistercians, to the honour of our beloved Lady, Saint Mary the 
Virgin." 

A confirmation of this gift was made by King Stephen, and 
the estate is still called the Liberty of Rufford, and is exempt 
from the parochial system. 

When Henry VI 11. swept away the abbeys of England, Ruf- 
ford was given by him to George, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury. 
His grandson, the sixth Earl, had charge of Mary, Queen of 
Scots ; he married, firstly, a daughter of the first Earl of Rutland, 
by whom he had several children, and secondly, the celebrated 
Bess of Hardwick, widow of Sir W. Cavendish, by whom she 
had had three sons and three daughters. Her second daughter, 
Elizabeth, was married, in the Chapel at Rufford, to Charles 
Stuart, younger brother of Darnley, the father of James I., while 
he was on a visit there with his mother, the Countess of Lennox ; 
the ill-fated Arabella Stuart was the result of this union. An 
amusing letter on the subject written by Lord Shrewsbury to 
Lord Burghley shows that he was very nervous as to the manner 
in which this act of his matchmaking and scheming wife would 
be viewed by his sovereign ; his fears were not unfounded, for 
the mothers of both bride and bridegroom paid a short visit to 
the Tower. Meanwhile Bess had married her step-daughter, 
Lady Mary Talbot, to Sir George Savile of Thornhill, Lupset, and 
Wakefield, and the Rufford estate was made over to him. He 
was created a baronet June 29, 161 1. 

Their son, likewise Sir George, married Anne, daughter of 
Sir W. Wentworth, and sister of Thomas Wentworth, the great 
Earl of Strafford, of whom a splendid portrait by Van Dyck hangs 
in the Billiard-room. 

Strafford was often the guest of his brother-in-law, Sir 




THE BRICK HALL, RUFFORD ABBEY 
THE ANCIENT BANQUETING HALL 



237 



238 •Ruffort) Bbbep 

George. There are many interesting letters from him in the pos- 
session of the writer, among others one dated from Dublin 
Castle, December, 1633, addressed to his young nephew, to 
whom he gives, at considerable length, advice as to the manage- 
ment of his large estates ; laying down many rules for his guid- 
ance through life generally, and warning him especially against 
making too early an appearance at Court, before he should be 
capable of contending with the dangers that would surely there 
beset him. In the Strafford papers he relates a curious anecdote 
of James 1. when hunting with his Court at Rufford. " The loss 
of the stag, and the hounds hunting foxes instead of deer, put the 
king into a marvellous chaff, accompanied with those ordinary 
symptoms better known to you courtiers, I conceive, than to us 
rural swains : in the height whereof comes a clown galloping 
in and staring him full in the face: 'His blood!' quoth he, 
' am I come forty miles to see a fellow ? ' And presently, in a 
great rage, turns about his horse, and away he goes faster than he 
came ; the address whereof caused His Majesty and the company 
to burst out into a vehement laughter ; and so the fume for that 
time was happily dispersed." 

The Stuarts were frequent visitors at Rufford ; Thoroton says : 
" This place hath often entertained King James and King Charles 
his son, being very pleasant and commodious for hunting in the 
forest of Shirewood." During the Commonwealth, it was one of 
the places appointed for the rendezvous of persons disaffected to 
the Government. 

The large cedar on the lawn was planted by Charles II. dur- 
ing one of his visits to Rufford. 

Sir William Savile, the third Baronet, was the leader of the 
Royalist forces in Yorkshire during the troublous times of the 
Civil War. When not engaged in fighting, he lived at Rufford ; 
just before his death he ordered his old Hall at Thornhill, near 




THE PICTURE GALLERY, RUFFORD ABBEY 



239 



240 IRufforfc Hbbc^ 

Wakefield, to be burnt down, to prevent it being used as a gar- 
rison for the forces of the Parliament. He was appointed, in 
1643, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the town and Castle 
of Sheffield, but died the following year. His widow, a daughter 
of Lord Keeper Coventry, remained on in the Castle of Sheffield, 
which she gallantly defended against the besiegers, although 
daily expecting her confinement, and being, of course, unable to 
obtain any medical assistance. It was only when the walls were 
actually battered in that her own soldiers, to save the heroic 
lady, gave up the keys. Lady Savile was allowed to march out 
with the honours of war, and to have an escort to Rufford, where 
she was confined the next day. Her eldest son, Sir George 
Savile, was destined to become one of the most famous, and per- 
haps the most powerful man of his time. He was created Lord 
Savile, then Viscount, and afterwards Marquis of Halifax. 

This great statesman adored his Nottinghamshire home, and 
in spite of the high positions he occupied and the honours that 
were conferred upon him, he was never so happy as when he 
could live quietly down there among his books and pictures. In 
writing from Windsor Castle at the end of July, W]9, where he 
was detained by the cares of office, he laments that the summer is 
passing without his being able to see his poor old Rufford, which 
he prefers to Windsor in all its glory, and yearns for with the 
longing of an absent lover. 

To the "Trimmer," however, it is due that but a portion 
now remains of the original abbey. In a letter dated from Ruf- 
ford, February 7, ie>8o, to his brother Henry Savile — then Envoy 
Extraordinary to Louis XIV. — he begins : 

" I am once more got to my old tenement, which I had not 
seen since I had given orders to renew and repair it. It looketh 
now somewhat better than when you was last here ; and besides 
the charms of your native soil, it hath something more to recom- 




241 



IRufforfc Hbbcp 243 

mend itself to your kindness, than when it was so inixt with the 
old ruins of the abbey that it looked like a medley of superstition 
and sacriledge, and though 1 have still left some decayed front of 
old building, yet there are none of the rags of Rome remaining. 
It is now all heresye, which in my mind looketh pretty well, and 
I have at least so much reverence for it now as 1 had when it was 
encumbered with those sanctified ruins." 

Lord Halifax married firstly, Dorothy Spencer, daughter of 
the Earl of Sunderland and of the famous " Sacharissa," who was 
constantly at Rufford, and who was an ardent admirer of the 
character and talents of her son-in-law. Indeed, after the death 
of her second husband, Sir Robert Smythe, Lady Sunderland 
appears to have made it her home from 1663 to the autumn of 
1667. 

After the death of Dorothy, Lady Halifax, in 1670, Lord 
Halifax endeavoured to find distraction in public life, and for a 
short time represented Great Britain as Minister at The Hague. 

In 1674, his second marriage took place, to Gertrude Pierre- 
pont, daughter of William Pierrepont of Thoresby, and grand- 
daughter of the first Earl of Kingston. Lord Halifax died in 169s 
and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Macaulay says of him : 
"Among the statesmen of that age Halifax was, in genius, the 
first. His intellect was fertile, subtle, and capacious. His pol- 
ished, luminous, and animated eloquence, set off by the silver 
tones of his voice, was the delight of the House of Lords. His 
conversation overflowed with thought, fancy, and wit. . . . 
He was the chief of those politicians whom the two great parties 
contemptuously called Trimmers. Instead of quarrelling with 
this nickname, he assumed it as a title of honour, and vindicated, 
with great vivacity, the dignity of the appellation. ' Everything 
good,' he said, 'trims between extremes. The temperate zone 
trims between the climate in which men are roasted and the 



244 "RutEorfc HbDcp 

climate in which they are frozen. The English Church trims 
between the Anabaptist madness and the Papist lethargy. The 
English constitution trims between Turkish despotism and Polish 
anarchy. Virtue is nothing but a just temper between propensi- 
ties any one of which, if indulged to excess, becomes vice. Nay, 
the perfection of the Supreme Being Himself consists in the 
exact equilibrium of attributes, none of which could preponderate 
without disturbing the whole moral and physical order of the 
world.' Thus Halifax was a Trimmer on principle. He was also 
a Trimmer by the constitution both of his head and of his heart. 
His understanding was keen, sceptical, inexhaustibly fertile in 
distinctions and objections ; his taste refined ; his sense of the 
ludicrous exquisite ; his temper placid and forgiving, but fastidi- 
ous, and by no means prone either to malevolence or to enthusi- 
astic admiration. Such a man could not long be constant to any 
band of political allies. He must not, however, be confounded 
with the vulgar crowd of renegades. For though, like them, he 
passed from side to side, his transition was always in the direc- 
tion opposite to theirs. ... To his lasting honour it must 
be mentioned that he attempted to save those victims whose fate 
has left the deepest stain both on the Whig and on the Tory 
name." 

Lord Halifax was succeeded by his son, Lord Eland, who 
married a daughter of the Earl of Nottingham, but leaving no son 
the marquisate became extinct, and his cousin, Sir John Savile, 
succeeded to the estates and the baronetcy. 

The eighth and last Baronet was the celebrated Sir George 
Savile, who in five successive Parliaments represented the county 
of York. He died unmarried in 1784. His sister, Barbara Savile, 
married, in the Chapel at Rufford, Richard, fourth Earl of Scar- 
borough, and to their younger son, John Lumley-Savile, Sir 
George bequeathed his Rufford and Yorkshire estates. Mr. 




THE GRAND STAIRCASE, RUFFORD ABBEY 



245 



246 IRufforfc abbes 

Lumley-Savile ultimately succeeded to the earldom of Scar- 
borough, and was the great-grandfather of the present owner. 

George IV., when Prince of Wales, paid a visit to Rufford. 
During this visit Charles Dibdin, the poet, who had accompanied 
his Royal Highness as Master of the Ceremonies, wrote his cele- 
brated song, The Woodman s Stroke, after having witnessed the 
felling of an oak in the park. 

The principal approach to Rufford Abbey is by the lodge on 
the Nottingham road. A fine stone gateway, surmounted by the 
arms of the family, opens on a once grand avenue of limes. They 
have, alas ! suffered severely in the gales of recent years, and 
more than one of these decrepit old giants now depends on the 
doubtful support of his neighbour. As you descend this avenue 
the west front of the house gradually becomes visible, with its 
quaint gables and mullioned windows. This is the decayed front 
of the old abbey alluded to above. A bridge connects the car- 
riage drive with a fine stone portal with twisted columns, the 
door of which opens on a lobby of carved oak panels with a col- 
lection of curious old weapons and armour. Three steps lead 
you into the ancient Banqueting Hall with floor of red brick in 
mosaic devices. A wainscot of dark oak panelling runs round 
the Hall, and on it hang pictures of the Tudor period, portraits of 
Arabella Stuart as a girl, of Sir William and Lady Savile the hero- 
ine of Sheffield Castle, and several of the Sidney family. Above 
the wainscot the walls are covered with tapestries of the Flemish 
school. Across the Hall near the entrance is an oaken screen 
carved with quaint Elizabethan tracery. Beyond the arches at 
either end of the screen stand men in armour placed in front of 
Gothic tapestry. Above their helmets rises the minstrels' gallery. 
Along the whole length of the Hall, under the windows, runs a 
narrow oak table blackened with age, a relic of the Cistercian 
monks, together with the benches used by them at their meals. 




THE CHAPEL, RUFFORD ABBEY 



247 



2 4 s IRufforfc Hbbep 

In the centre of the Hall is an enormous fireplace of stone, with 
Elizabethan carving. Crossing the dais at the upper end, you 
find the door leading to the Library, a i)ne room with a ceiling 
of great beauty. Above the bookcases the walls are covered 
with rich red velvet brocade, forming a good background to the 
pictures and china. Over the large stone fireplace hangs a fine 
portrait of the Prince of Wales in Garter robes, painted by the 
late Augustus Savile, H.M. Marshal of the Ceremonies, who, be- 
sides being of great social fame, was, like his brother the late 
Lord Savile, an artist of considerable talent. 

The Drawing-room walls and ceiling are decorated with 
carvings of tlowers, medallions, and ribbons in white and gold, 
and the walls are panelled with crimson and white silk of the 
basket pattern. The furniture is entirely covered with exquisite 
specimens of Gobelin and Beauvais tapestry of the Louis XV. 
period. 

The Billiard-room contains many interesting family portraits, 
among others those of the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, the husband 
of Bess of Hardwick ; Sir Henry Savile, Provost of Eton in the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, and founder of the Savilian fellowship 
at the University of Oxford, by Marcus Garrett ; a magnificent 
portrait of Strafford by Van Dyck ; Barbara, Countess of Scar- 
borough, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Lord Halifax, by Sir G. Kneller, 
and both his wives by Sir P. Lely ; Prince Rupert by Lely, and 
Lady Savile by Romney. 

The Picture Gallery or Ballroom, which forms part of the 
wing built by Lord Halifax, is one hundred and twenty-four feet 
in length, with floor of oaken parquet, and a ceiling copied from 
one at Hardwick. On the walls of one side of this fine room 
hang pictures by Velasquez, Rembrandt, Teniers, Van Dyck, Mu- 
rillo, Watteau, Greuze, and Gainsborough ; the other side is en- 
tirely covered with fine specimens of Brussels tapestry. 




249 



250 IRufforfc Hbbep 

The Dining-room is, perhaps, the least imposing one of the 
house, but it contains some noteworthy pictures and family por- 
traits, besides a magnificent collection of racing cups, mostly 
trophies won by the late Mr. Henry Savile, whose celebrated 
horse, Cremorne, was the winner of the Derby of 1872. 

The grand staircase, of carved oak, was designed and built 
by the late Lord Savile, H.M. Ambassador at Rome ; the fine 
bay window which forms the first landing being the only addi- 
tion to the outside of the house since the alterations made by 
Lord Halifax. The windows of this landing are coloured with 
the coats-of-arms of the family from the time that Sir George 
Savile obtained the property through his marriage with Lady 
Mary Talbot in 1590. A smaller oak staircase leads down to the 
Chapel, the date of which in its present state is uncertain ; but 
it clearly existed in the time of Bess of Hardwick, for there, as 
already mentioned, was celebrated her daughter's marriage to 
Charles Stuart in 1=174. Its walls are covered with tapestry, and 
the pews of very black oak are surmounted by handsomely 
carved finials. The large gallery above, which forms the pew 
of the family, contains no prayer-books of more recent date than 
that of Charles II. In the floor of the aisle is a tombstone with 
a cross incised and an inscription in Latin, " Robert de Markham, 
a monk of this house who died in 1109,"— but this slab was no 
doubt placed in the Chapel at a later period. 

Descending from the family pew by a stone staircase, you 
come to the basement floor. It was at the foot of this stair- 
case that, about thirty years ago, on removing some large flags 
which always seemed damp, a skeleton was found with a bullet 
hole through the skull. The bones were removed to Wellow 
churchyard and buried there. Past the lower door of the 
Chapel and along a stone corridor, yoi^come to the Servant's 
Hall ; this was the old Crypt of the abbey, an immense hall 




251 



252 IRufforfc Hbbe^ 

with vaulted roof, huge columns of stone, and a fireplace of colos- 
sal dimensions. 

The cellars which adjoin the Crypt are extremely interesting, 
being of the same architecture but entirely unaltered since the 
days of the monks ; the walls throughout this portion of the 
house are six feet in thickness. 

But the bedroom floor is what appears more than all to 
attract the admiration of visitors to Rufford. Many of these 
rooms are hung with splendid specimens of Brussels tapestry 
made specially for them. In the Stuart Room, where both the 
Charleses slept, these represent the history of Queen Esther. In 
the State-room scenes from the life of Marcus Aurelius adorn the 
walls. The furniture in most of the bedrooms is French of the 
Louis XIV. and XV. periods. 

Rufford has always had the reputation of being haunted ; 
and though the present owner, after many years' residence, can 
add no testimony of his own on the subject, there are several 
persons of undoubted veracity still living who affirm that they 
have seen "the little old lady in black." More recently great 
alarm was occasioned to one of the guests by a visit from a gi- 
gantic monk with a death's-head under his cowl. Whatever the 
explanation of these mysterious appearances may be, it is certain 
that the belief in them was both wide-spread and widely cred- 
ited ; for in an early Register of the parish church at Edwin- 
stowe was entered the burial of a man who "died from fright 
after seeing the Rufford ghost." 

The Park is undulating and finely wooded. Round the 
house tall fences of yew and of holly are cut into fantastic shapes. 
Three streams run through the garden, and wind their way into 
a lake dotted with islands with tine old clumps of trees upon 
them. Below a winter garden filled with immense palms rises a 
fountain, which flows into the ancient stew or fishpond bordered 




RUFFORD ABBEY, FROM THE LAWN 



253 



254 IRuffoit) Hbbe? 

with daffodils. Here, when in the mood for dreaming, we can 
picture to ourselves the white-clad forms of the Cistercian Broth- 
ers, engaged in the absorbing pursuit of procuring their Friday's 
meal, while not forgetting, let us hope, to breathe a prayer for 
the soul of their departed benefactor, Gilbert of Gaunt. 



Compton W\m\>ate8 



255 




THE WEST FRONT OF COMPTON WYNYATES 



COMPTON WYNYATES 



BY ALICE DRYDEN 



THOSE fortunate enough to penetrate the rural depths of 
Warwickshire and reach Compton Wynyates, the ances- 
tral home of the Comptons, will have imprinted in their 
minds a vision of colour and architectural beauty set in quiet 
country surroundings. Indeed, the peace is absolutely unbroken, 
and as we gaze at one beautiful feature after another, it is hard to 
believe that we are not transported back by some enchantment to 
the sixteenth century. 

In addition to its beauty the house is extremely interesting. 
It was built after the fortified castles were out of date, and yet 
retains the moat, secret hiding-places, and numerous staircases for 



257 



258 Compton Mpnpatcs 

refuge and escape in case of attack. Its chief safety, however, 
was its situation ; for, built in a hollow with the ground rising on 
every side, it would often escape discovery. Camden wrote of 
it as "Compton in the Hole," adding that "though in a hole yet 
is it not without its pleasures." On the top of the rise towards 
Banbury, as a guide before a road was made, there still stands a 
pile of stones called Compton Pike. 

The moat is now tilled up except on one side, where it 
nearly surrounds an old garden, and both form a foreground to 
the quaint back of the house. As the front of the building bursts 
upon us it is surrounded by a lawn with curious old-fashioned 
flagged pathways. It is indeed a most picturesque pile of ex- 
quisite colouring : built of small red bricks widely separated by 
mortar, with occasional chequers of blue bricks ; the mouldings 
and facings of yellow local stone, the woodwork of the two 
gables carved and black with age, the stone slates covered with 
lichens, and mellowed by the hand of time, the whole building 
has an indescribable charm. The architecture, too, is all irregu- 
lar : towers here and there, gables of different heights, any 
straight line embattled, few windows placed exactly over others, 
and the whole fitly surmounted by the elaborate carved and 
moulded brick chimneys of different designs, some fluted, others 
zigzagged, others spiral, or combined spiral and tinted. 

Of the Comptons who owned the property before the time 
of Henry VII. it is unnecessary to say anything, since one is 
writing of the house rather than of the family. In that reign 
William Compton, son and heir of Edmund, was, at his father's 
death, left a minor of eleven years of age. Being a ward of the 
Crown, he was appointed to attend on Henry, Duke of York, 
afterwards Henry VIII., and enjoyed the King's favour till his 
death in 1528. He died possessed of large landed estates, having 
manors in twenty-one different counties : among the rest that of 




259 



26o 



Compton Kfl^npates 



Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire. In the beginning of the 
King's reign Sir William had been appointed keeper of Fulbroke 
Park, with permission to pull down some buildings there and 

use the materials for 
his own house at 
Compton Wyn- 
yates, round which, 
in isiq, he obtained 
the King's license 
to enclose a park 
of two thousand 
acres. 

A curious ques- 
tion arises as to 
what parts of the 
house were brought 
from Fulbroke, 
which was distant 
about fou rteen 
miles. The build- 
ings were ruinous 
in 1478, though not 
of great age, as in 
the time of Richard 11. Joan, Lady Bergavenny, had built there 
a gatehouse and lodge, and just previously John, Duke of Bed- 
ford, brother of Henry V., had erected a castle of brick and 
stone, from which castle, if the tradition is correct, came those 
wonderful brick chimneys said to have been transported in pan- 
niers on donkeys. This, however, is unlikely, as they are of the 
same date as the house. 

The first building of Compton Wynyates as it stands now 
was between 1509 and Sir William's death in 1528, and it seems 




SPENCER COMPTON, EARL OF NORTHAMPTON 

FROM THE ENGRAVING IN LODGE'S "PORTRAITS" 



Compton THH\msates 



261 



unlikely that anything more was done for some time, for his son 
and successor died before he was of age, leaving an infant heir, 
Henry, who became the first Baron Compton, and commenced 
building Castle Ashby. He died in 1589, leaving a young son 
William, who was the hero of the " baker's-basket elopement." 
The story runs that he fell in love with the only child of Sir John 
Spencer, one of the most opulent of London's merchant princes, 




SOUTH-WEST ANGLE AND GARDEN 



proverbially known at the time as " rich Spencer." The course 
of true love, however, did not run smooth, as Sir John by no 
means approved of the advances of the young courtier, and posi- 
tively refused his consent to the marriage ; so Lord Compton 
devised a plan to outwit Sir John and carry off his lady-love. A 
bribe to the baker enabled him to disguise himself and deliver the 
loaves one morning ; as soon as the basket was emptied the lady 
got in, and Lord Compton was boldly carrying his precious load 
downstairs when he was met by Sir John, who, luckily not 
recognising him, gave him a sixpence as a reward for being so 
early, observing that that was the way to thrive. On discovering 
the truth Sir John was so angry that he disinherited his daughter ; 



262 Compton IKIl\m\>ates 

and the quarrel was made up only through the intervention of 
Queen Elizabeth, who invited him to stand sponsor with her for 
a child whom he promised to adopt — to find it was his own 
grandson. It is said that on his death in 1010 he left, according 
to the lowest accounts, ^^00,000 — a prodigious sum in those 
days. 

By this marriage with the Spencer heiress the now valuable 
property of Islington came into the Compton family, including 
Sir John's manor-house at Canonbury. On inheriting this great 
fortune it was Lady Compton's wish that Castle Ashby should be 
built up ; so my Lady's grand notions fortunately found a safe 
outlet without destroying the old manor-house of Henry VIII. 's 
time. Lord Compton was created Earl of Northampton by James 
I., whom he entertained at Compton in 1017, and, dying in 1630, 
was succeeded by his son Spencer, a brilliant scholar and an 
accomplished gentleman, described by Clarendon as "a person 
of great courage, honour, and fidelity.'' When the Civil War 
broke out he was one of the most energetic supporters of the 
Royal cause, and Compton Wynyates became a battle-ground of 
opposing factions. The Compton family threw all their energy 
and wealth on the King's side ; and when Lord Northampton led 
his well-disciplined regiment of green-coats into the held at 
Edgehill it contained three of his sons : a fourth shed tears 
because he was not yet old enough to handle a pistol. Lord 
Northampton was killed at the battle of Hopton Heath, and there 
is a touching letter written at the time by his eldest son James to 
his mother. 

This James succeeded his father as Governor of Banbury 
Castle, and was himself succeeded by his brother Sir William, 
who held it till the close of the War, and with his brother. Sir 
Charles, made a daring but unsuccessful attempt to recover their 
home from the Parliamentarians. It had been taken in 1644 by a 




263 



264 Gompton Mvmjrates 

party of four hundred foot and three hundred horse, that lay 
before Compton Wynyates for two days, drove the park, killed 
all the deer, defaced the monuments in the church, and carried 
off to Banbury, besides officers and soldiers, .£5000 in money, 
sixty or eighty horses, four hundred sheep, one hundred and 
sixty head of cattle, eighteen loads of plunder, and five or six 
earthen pots of money found in the fish-pond. 

There is a tradition that a considerable number of the Cava- 
liers who had been wounded in the attack remained in the house 
when it was taken ; they were said to have been concealed by 
Lady Northampton in the roofs, which are entered by a trap- 
door, and were tended by her, presumably escaping without the 
Puritan garrison knowing anything about it. The Puritans held 
the house till the surrender of Banbury, in 1646. 

From this account it would appear that there was a second 
court in front of the present house, with a drawbridge, and that 
there were outworks behind the stables and a stone bridge cross- 
ing the moat, defended by a sconce or temporary wooden screen. 
The house stood behind all these, and so escaped damage. The 
moat was probably filled up in the last century, when the family 
thought Compton damp, but warmer than Castle Ashby as a 
winter residence. The barn, probably rebuilt in the year 1642, 
was pulled down only in the present century. The stables and 
outbuildings were finally cleared away by Charles, third Marquis 
—when the approach to the house was turned into its present 
condition of open lawn. 

The Parliamentary party allowed James, Lord "Northampton, 
to enjoy his estates in peace on his paying a heavy composition ; 
and he probably made alterations and repairs to his house after 
the damage it must have sustained, putting in windows with 
plain mouldings and a transom, of a darker stone. The original 
windows were of yellow stone, and pointed-arched. Some of 




265 



266 Compton ttH\m\>ate8 

these were afterwards replaced by sashes, and have been since 
reconverted into Gothic windows. The sashes were put in by 
George, fourth Earl, after the fashion of his times. He also did a 
good deal both for Compton and Castle Ashby, where he re- 
planted the great avenue. He was succeeded in 1727 by his son 
James, whose initials " 1. N." are on the leaden rainwater pipes 
at both places. He, to his discredit, prepared the walls for paper- 
ing, and hid some of the old Gothic chimneypieces under slabs of 
marble. But it was Spencer, the eighth Earl, who proved a 
notorious and extravagant owner of Compton Wynyates, and 
nearly brought about its total destruction. In 1768, he took an 
active part in a contested election to nominate a member for the 
borough of Northampton. His opponents were Lord Spencer and 
Lord Halifax ; the latter was ruined, and the former spent /130,- 
000, and left a legacy of debt on his estate besides. The eating 
and drinking that went on in an election in those days was 
astonishing, and it is said that after draining Lord Halifax's cellars 
of port, the electors were offered claret, and this not being to 
their liking they migrated in a body to clear out the port at Castle 
Ashby. It is not surprising that even Lord Northampton was 
reduced to cutting down his timber, and after selling most of his 
furniture at Castle Ashby and the whole of that at Compton he 
spent the rest of his life in Switzerland. Before going abroad he 
gave orders that Compton should be pulled down, as he could 
not afford to repair it ; but, by good luck, the faithful steward of 
of the estate, John Berrill, did his best to keep out the weather 
and preserve the house for posterity, as he said he was sure the 
family would come back there some day. Most of the windows 
were bricked up to save window tax, and the glorious old build- 
ing that had entertained kings and queens remained bare and 
desolate for many years, excepting a small portion that was used 
as a farmhouse ! 




267 



268 



Compton TKH\m\?ates 



Fortunately its day has now come again, and its late owners 
have repaired it with taste and care. Charles, third Marquis, in 
1807 employed Sir Digby Wyatt to rebuild the great staircase; 

and the Tudor win- 
dows that had been 
altered in Queen 
Anne's time were re- 
stored from his own 
drawings ; also the 
Hall screen, which 
had been p ai n t e d 
white, was cleaned 
and repaired among 
many necessary re- 
storations. The late 
Marquis built a new 
home for the tenant, 
and so recovered the 
use of the whole 
house. It is now the 
summer residence of 
the present Lord and 




THE PORCH FROM INSIDE OF THE COURT 



Lady Northampton, 
who have laid out the garden to match the old place ; and 
soon the yew hedges and parterres of roses and gilly-flowers 
will appear as though they have had an uninterrupted existence 
from the days of hoops and periwigs. The lawn, where once 
the moat flowed, intervenes between the garden and the 
south side of the house, where the Chapel window is the central 
feature ; and creepers climb round the Drawing-room windows 
and up the towers, the bright green of their leaves bringing out 
the warm tones of the crimson brickwork. The highest gable in 




INTERIOR OF THE COURT, COMPTON WYNYATES, SHOWING THE 
TWISTED CHIMNEYS 



269 



Compton TKa^n^atcs 



271 



this front is that of the " Roman Catholic Chapel." One of its 
windows looks out on the parapet, and beneath, facing west, is 
the four-light one of the "Guard-room." Many of the smaller 
windows in various parts of the house indicate the position of 
staircases, of queer little rooms or cupboards. Most old houses 
contain these recesses, but the number of both them and the 
staircases at Compton is unusual and remarkable. 

Facing west is the entrance front : the two gables, with their 
carved black barge-boards, are of different heights, and at differ- 
ent distances from the entrance porch ; that on the right con- 
tained the officers' quarters of olden days. The Porch is of the 
earliest date of the house, and, both inside and out, is a most 
attractive feature. Over the arch are the arms of Henry VIII., 
supported by a dragon on the dexter and a greyhound on the 
sinister side, and surmounted by a crown, on which is inscribed 
Bom. * IRey ' IbenriCVS • ©Ctav>. The hollow moulding of the 
dripstone is carved with figures of roses, lizards, and, in one cor- 
ner, a rose and pomegranate twisted together. On each side is 
the Tudor rose under a crown. One spandrel of the arch is filled 
with an uncommon device of Catharine of Aragon, made up on a 
shield, of a picturesque form of the triple-towered castle of Cas- 
tile, the pomegranate of Granada, and the sheaf of arrows, a 
cognisance of her mother Isabella ; the other spandrel has the 
portcullis, a badge of Henry VIII. Inside the arch on each side 
are stone benches, also doors which gave access to the moat. 
The old double oak doors, moulded with linen pattern outside 
and strongly panelled within, bear the marks of a long and faith- 
ful service. The spy window, or lamp-holder, which is ot fine 
design in iron-work, has been removed for better preservation, 
and hung in the Hall ; it seems of earlier date than the house, so 
may possibly have come from Fulbroke. 

On the left on entering is the doorway of the porter's lodge, 



272 



Compton TKIl^npates 



and a blocked-up niche through which he probably carried on 
communications. Inside the lodge is another spy-hole blocked 
up, and a staircase giving access to the turret, for the purpose of 
reconnoitring any one that approached. Beautiful as is the out- 
side, the inner courtyard loses nothing by comparison ; every 
feature there may be exactly the same as it was centuries ago, 

thou g h the f u r 
squares of turf and 
flagged paths are 
really of a later date. 
The repose and 
gran de u r of the 
building brings to 
one's spirit the feel- 
ing of what little ac- 
count we are in the 
presence of such me- 
morials of the past. 
Compton differs from many houses of the period in the 
position of the Hall, more approximating to the collegiate arrange- 
ment. Usually, the front door, giving access to it through the 
"screens," is in the outer wall of the house, and often in a porch ; 
at Compton the doorway in the outer wall is large enough to 
admit a vehicle, and the Hall is in the opposite side of the Court, 
thus gaining protection, and enabling windows to be placed lower 
down. Its grand bay window is the most prominent feature in 
the Court. The door opens into the passage formed out of the 
Hall by the old oak screen, which has been roofed over for 
the advantage of warmth. The two doors corresponding with 
the kitchen and buttery doors opposite are new, but most of the 
panels enriched with linen patterns are old, also the central one, 
which illustrates the " Deeds of Compton, "a most quaint collection 




THE MINSTRELS' GALLERY 



Compton TKHpnv>ates 273 

of carved knights in armour, some on horseback, slaying and 
being slain in extraordinary attitudes. In the centre of this panel 
are the arms of Sir William, bearing the " honourable augmenta- 
tion " granted by Henry VIII. " out of the said King's own royall 
Ensigns and Devises " : the lion of England passant guardant or, 
to be carried with the three helmets which the Comptons had 
borne for centuries, quartered with the new arms given with the 
red dragon crest : argent, a chevron vert within a bordure azure, 
bezante. Green and white were Henry VIII. 's colours. 

The Hall extends to the full height of the house, and has a 
finely moulded open timber roof springing from a richly carved 
cornice ; it is said to have been brought from Fulbroke, and 
evidently was originally made for a larger place. 

Behind the screen rises the picturesque "half-timbered" 
walls of the minstrel gallery. It had all been plastered up and 
painted white, like the screen, till its beauty was discovered a 
few years ago. Gallery is indeed a misnomer in this instance, 
for it is a good-sized room with a separate window, the openings 
to the Hall resembling windows without glass. It was very con- 
venient, doubtless, for the repressed ladies of former days to 
enjoy some of the revelry below. The dais from the bay window 
end has disappeared, but an old table still remains — an enormous 
slab twenty-three feet long and thirty inches wide, resting on 
modern trestles. It is thought by some to have been used for 
"shovel-board," a popular game in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, no hall being complete without its board. This fine 
slab survived the sale of furniture after the spendthrift election, 
and remains in the Hall with two other survivors — an old leathern 
jack and an iron chest with a curious intricate lock that was dis- 
covered imbedded in a corridor wall during this century. How 
one wishes there were left some of the old suits of armour which 
had clothed the retainers, or, better still, the suits of the gallant 



2j4 Compton W£ii\>ate& 

Earl Spencer, or those of his noble sons ! Gone for ever are the 
armorial relics that ought to be in the beautiful Hall, testifying to 
the doughty deeds of the gallant Cavaliers who fought in vain. 

Adjoining the Hall is the present Dining-room, formerly a 
parlour, of which the chimneypiece, in the Chippendale style, is 
probably of the time of George the fourth Earl. The plaster 
ceiling, ornamented with the arms of Compton, is of the period 
of the first Earl. Next to the Dining-room is the archway leading 
to the great staircase, which, in 1897, underwent an alteration from 
Wyatt's design ; the ceiling was copied in 18(17 from Canonbury 
House. This part of the east side of the house is of later date 
than the Hall. Over the Dining-room is the Drawing-room, a 
most pleasant apartment, with an old high window overlooking 
the Court, a bow and other re-inserted windows letting in the 
southern sun towards the garden. The walls are enriched with 
handsome oak panelling brought by Charles, third Marquis, from 
Canonbury House, including the carving over the mantelpiece, 
the cornice over which is modern, also the doors, though the 
doorways apparently belong to the Italian-Elizabethan style of Sir 
John Spencer's time ; the ceiling, which was restored when the 
oak was put up, having been erected probably by Earl James after 
the Restoration. A doorway in the wall opened originally on to 
a gallery in the Chapel, which would have been made when the 
panels of the adjoining room were plastered up. The most lux- 
urious way of attending prayers is exemplified in the adjoining 
"Chapel" Drawing-room, where without leaving their seats by 
the blazing logs the ladies could hear the minister and join in the 
responses if they thought fit. The room is panelled in oak ; 
eight of the lowest panels open in pairs like cupboard doors, 
giving directly on to the Chapel, facing the large south window 
where the altar stood : it is a most curious contrivance. The 
panels are now restored and the walls cleaned of their white 




CARVINQ OVER THE DRAWING-ROOM FIREPLACE, BROUGHT 
FROM CANONBURY HOUSE 



275 



276 Compton TOjmpates 

paint. Through this room is the so-called "bedchamber of 
Henry VIII." where the window is of four lights, containing in 
each some very good old painted glass, the arms of Henry VIII. 
and Catharine of Aragon ; and in the other two lights their 
badges, the Tudor rose and the castle of Castile, this last being 
the only one imperfect. They are surmounted by crowns, and 
the whole are remarkably well drawn. 

Close by this room is one only seven feet square, communi- 
cating with a secret hiding-place above, by a little narrow stair- 
case which has a slot for observation, formerly concealed by 
panelling. The multiplicity of windows and walls in the house 
would completely baffle an enemy in discovering these secret 
hiding-places ; and woe betide any honest person nowadays who 
would try to find his way about unguided, — for with rooms lead- 
ing out of one another as is usual in old houses, not to mention 
many with several doors and two or three staircases, it is like a 
maze to the uninitiated. It is a common saying about many 
houses that there are as many windows as days, and as many 
staircases as months in the year. Here, however, the glazed 
windows are computed at 27s, having been reduced to thirty in 
the window-tax days ; the flights of stairs at seventeen, but 
there are, besides, odd steps everywhere ; the rooms are put 
down at eighty, not including the cupboards and recesses, many 
of which would be hiding-places for the family valuables in 
troublous times, and were covered in with wainscoting or 
tapestry. 

Up a circular stair in the great tower is the " Guard-room " 
or " Council Chamber." The walls are covered with wainscot 
boards of split oak, showing the graining in a better way than 
sawn wood ; the band of carving running round the doors is 
modern, probably occupying the place of old work. The beauti- 
ful ceiling, now restored, is of the date of Spencer, second Earl, 




277 



278 



Compton JWl\m\>ate8 



" 






but contains no historical allusions like the " Henry VIII. Room " 
ceiling, which was his erection also. Over the fireplace are 
marks of fire, showing doubtless the carelessness of the Parlia- 
mentary garrison I 
but the tough oak 
fortunately stood a 
certain amount of 
burning with impun- 
ity. The room was 
well chosen for a 
meeting - place, as 
those concerned 
could approach or 
leave hastily by dif- 
ferent ways : there 
are six doors in the 
room, three giving 
access to newel stair- 
cases, one of which 
leads to the Chapel 
above, passing by 
the " Priest's hiding- 
hole," containing a 
window; another 
door leads into a tiny 
room having a trap- 
door and well-hole ; and another now opens into a space at the 
back of the fireplace (if this was a hiding-hole the doorway must 
be of late date). 

The "Roman Catholic Chapel" or "Priest's Room" is an 
extraordinary place, which tradition says was used as a Romish 
chapel in the days of persecution. There were many recusants 




CARVED DOOR 



Compton Mpnpates 279 

in the neighbourhood, and this top room being doubtless a safe 
spot to worship in, the gallant protection of the Comptons might 
have been extended to them ; or more probably it was a private 
chapel for some member of the family. The room is in the roof, 
the sloping timbers forming the walls with plaster between, and 
a cupboard behind the chimney appears to have been another 
hiding-place ; three other doors are at the head of as many stair- 
cases. Fixed beneath the south-west window is a slab of elm 
four feet long by seventeen inches wide, said to have been used 
as an altar. It certainly has marks which might be called rudi- 
mentary consecration crosses, but they are seven instead of five, 
and it has no recess for the necessary stone containing a relic. 
The beauty of the room is the oak doorway, exquisitely carved 
with trophies, birds and leaves in the finest Renaissance style. 
Whether it has always belonged to this room is doubtful : prob- 
ably not, as it is unlike anything else in the house. It is a pity 
that the insides of the jamb capitals have been cut out, and the 
original spandrels with the old fastening have gone. 

What are termed "the Barracks," from having been the 
quarters of Colonel Purefoy's soldiers, are over the Drawing- 
room ; formerly a great open space, but now divided off into 
servants' rooms, the passage running along being lighted by 
quaint dormer windows like those seen on the south side of the 
Court. The huge oak tie-beams and rafters that have formed the 
trusty framework of the roof through various vicissitudes inter- 
cept the passage at intervals, though they can be better seen in 
their original uncleaned aspect in another part, where the 
wounded Royalists are said to have been hidden. At the 
eastern end of the Barracks is a room with a charming view up 
the hill, probably used by the captain of the guard : it has a 
newel staircase descending, now blocked up. At the western 
end is the little oriel window in one of the half-timbered gables ; 



28o 



Comptcm M\?n\?ates 



the carved sill is upwards of nineteen inches thick and seventeen 

deep. 

In a four-light window on the south side of the Court, over 

a door leading to the Chapel, are very good coloured glass 

medallions of the red 
dragon crest ; the 
one on the dexter 
side is surrounded 
by a blue border of 
ten Tudor roses. The 
Chapel, whose large 
window is a notable 
feature outside, is at 
present dismantled. 
The only feature left 
is the screen of 
whitewashed wood 
dividing it into two 
parts with a gate in 
the centre ; this is 
worth noting be- 
cause of its carved 
panels at the head, 
which probably 

came from Fulbroke, being of the medieval religious grotesque 

epoch. The great window is said to have been removed during 

the Civil War to Balliol College, Oxford, where the two shields of 

arms are still to be found in one of the north windows of the 

Chapel. 

In the south-west angle of the quadrangle lies the traditional 

'jail," a dark, stone-floored room, with a low barred window; 

more likely used as a cellar, or kitchen for the garrison, as the 




A CORNER IN THE COUNCIL-ROOM 



Compton Wmates 281 

staircase outside leads up to the Barracks. Another curiosity is 
the lion's head carved in stone inserted in the courtyard wall by the 
buttery window, which is said to have run with wine on festive 
occasions ; a stone basin is fixed underneath. Close to the house, 
but surrounded now by trees, is an old brick dovecote ; a pitched 
stone path formerly led beside it from the house to the mill-pool, 
the descent of the water to which from the moat came through 
two stew-ponds, all of which remain, and a pleasant, dreamy little 
path it still is. It is interesting to note that the pool was ob- 
tained in nil probability by excavating clay to make bricks for the 
house. Some of the old red ridge-tiles on the roof still retain 
their oak-leaf cresting, making a nice finish. Just beyond the 
dovecote is the Church, interesting as of a style and date very 
uncommon in church-building. The original one, in which the 
ancestors of the first Sir William Compton were buried, was 
completely demolished when the Parliamentarians besieged the 
house. It was rebuilt by Earl James between 1656 and 166s, 
which latter date, with his initials "I. N.," appears on leaden 
spouts. The Church consists of nave and aisle of equal width 
and length, there being only two or three similar examples in 
England ; and contains a few broken family monuments rescued 
after the Restoration from the moat, into which they had been 
thrown. Such indignities did the effigies of the great Sir Wil- 
liam and Henry first Lord Compton suffer ; but we hope the 
clashing sword and din of strife will never again disturb the rest- 
ing-place of the second Sir William, designated by Cromwell 
"that sober young man and godly Cavalier," who was buried in 
the new church in [663, almost under the shadow of his beauti- 
ful old home, for which and his king and country he had fought 
so well. 

With its glorious colour so responsive to the awakening 
touch of the summer sunlight, it is hard to bid the grand old 



282 Compton TKIl^n^atcs 

house farewell ; and harder still to close this sketch, leaving un- 
written so much that could be written concerning one of Eng- 
land's matchless 

" Ancient homes of lord and lady, 
Built for pleasure and for state." 



Hawortb Castle 



283 




GATEWAY AND DACRE TOWER FROM THE GARDEN 



NAWORTH CASTLE 



BY A. H. MALAN 



THE cross-country traveller, from Newcastle or Carlisle, who 
elects to get out at Naworth and can spend a day or two, 
will find, within the circuit of a few miles, a Castle, 
Priory, Spa ; breezy uplands with crags, lochs, and camps ; a 
trout-stream of no mean repute ; and sloping woodlands, where 
brown owls are common objects of the gloaming, and dapper 
little dippers disport themselves by babbling becks, deep down 
in leafy dells. 

So tree-girt, indeed, is Naworth that the station is in the 
middle of a wood, with rabbits poking their noses through the 
palings ; and when, beyond its gates, you pass " just down over 

the bank '"—that convenient Cumbrian phrase for beguiling the 

285 



286 IRawortb Castle 

pedestrian and courteously compressing distance — so woodlocked 
is the Castle yonder that its turrets alone appear. 

In absence of definite knowledge, Naworth, or Naward, is 
believed to have begun life as a simple Pele : one of those handy 
refuges, where, at the approach of the Northern marauder, the 
herdsmen of the smaller lords could find temporary shelter for 
themselves and their cattle. And whoever built this Pele cer- 
tainly had his wits about him. For though from the south the 
Castle appears to be too low for safety, from the north and west 
it is discovered to be standing on a point where two defiles meet, 
like a cliff-castle ; hence on three sides being well out of range 
of all primitive artillery, though at the expense of having to con- 
tract its area from east to west, to adjust itself to the narrowing 
platform. 

Then, in i}}6, when the Scots were rampagious, Ranulph 
Dacre, having acquired the property through his wife, Margaret, 
heiress of the last De Multon of Gilsland, obtained license to 
crenellate, running a strong wall across the tongue of land, and 
extending the Pele upwards into what afterward became known 
as the Dacre Tower. 

But before reaching that tower you will see before you 
some work of a more considerable builder, Sir Thomas Dacre, 
who, towards the end of the fifteenth century, so extensively 
added to Ranulph's crenellation as to make the Castle much what 
it is to-day. This is the Gateway, with the Dacre shield above 
it ; the wall standing out at right angles having, of course, strictly 
speaking, no business to be there, though its presence is justified 
through its helping to enclose a charming old-fashioned garden, 
where fruit, flowers, and vegetables grow together in seductive 
proximity ; blackbirds being constant attendants, and squirrels 
paying occasional visits, to see what they can find. This gate- 
way, a removed Guard-room, and the contiguous Botehouse, 



IRawoitb Castle 



287 



with curtain walls, formed an outer court, duly protected by a 
moat still visible, running parallel with them ; the Botehouse 
having now made a clean sweep of its fuel and forage, and 
acquired the dig- 
nity of a studio, 
wherein some of 
those o i 1 paint- 
ings from Lord 
Carlisle's brush, 
in the domestic 
rooms, may have 
been from time to 
time produced. 

A few steps 
within this Gate- 
way, in the outer 
wall of the Castle, 
is an entrance dis- 
playing Lord Wil- 
liam Howard's 
shield and lead- 
ing into the quad- 
rangle ; the casual 
tripper not being 

supposed to turn to the left, into the Smoking-room in the base- 
ment, but to cross the Court and present himself at the doorway 
with a similar shield. While awaiting admission, the curious may 
detect around the quadrangle three periods of construction — Sir 
Thomas Dacre's work, Lord William's work, and the post- 1844- 
flre repairs. With one's back to the door, to the left is the Dacre 
Tower, with the older Pele masonry at its base ; between which 
and the twelfth-century Byzantine well-head from Venice were 




THE GATEWAY WITH DACRE SHIELD 



2 88 IRawortb Castle 

some lodging-rooms of the Lord William era ; these, however, 
having succumbed to the fire, the massive Dacre curtain now 
stands exposed, pierced by the main gateway, through which a 
mounted knight could pass without lowering his lance. The Hall 
is fine indeed. Before the fire its roof was flat and panelled, and 
contained hypothetical portraits of King Brute and his successors, 
brought in 1004 from Kirkoswald Castle. At its upper end was a 
partition, where now stands the tall tapestried screen shutting off 
the dais portion into a dining-room ; at the lower end was a 
stone screen, by Sir John Vanbrugh, apparently somewhat similar 
to the one at Audley End, where, parenthetically, is an excellent 
portrait of Lord William's mother, the Duchess of Norfolk, though 
it is but the half of a picture of which the other half is said to be 
in Lord Westmorland's possession. This out-of-place stone affair 
had taken the place of an earlier oak screen, on the top of which, 
or ranged at its base, stood four great beasts, cognisances of De 
Vaux, Greystock, and Dacre, that still carry their pennons as of 
yore. The large, light-coloured hangings, a wedding present 
from Henry IV. to Marie de Medicis, are some of the earliest ex- 
amples of the kind done in France. 

Among the pictures is a Van Dyck of Charles L, and several 
family portraits, including full-lengths of Lord William and his 
wife (copies from the originals, by Janssen, at Castle Howard) ; 
also one that looks like a Queen Elizabeth, but from the crucifix 
and taper in the hands has been thought to be that " grave and 
virtuous matron," Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter and co- 
heiress of William Lord Dacre, from whom the Carlisle branch of 
the Howard family is descended. Beneath the picture in question, 
but with a full-length of Queen Henrietta Maria intervening, the 
armour worn by Lord William proves the knight to have been six 
feet high, and withal sufficiently stalwart to bear the onerous 
duties that fate assigned him. 




INTERIOR OF COURT, NAWORTH CASTLE 



28q 



2qo IRawcutfo Castle 

Westward from the Hall are some rooms, with lots of things 
to look at, and lovely peeps down the glen from their latticed 
windows ; but our way must be in the usual track of the common 
excursionist, northward into the Drawing-room, a room more 
than usually blest with sunshine ; a deep bay looking east, and 
a large mullioned window looking west, through which may be 
observed that "wild and winsome jessamine tree," which so 
stirred the poetic fancy of the seventh Earl. At the fireplace end 
are portraits of Colonel Philip Howard (slain at Rowton Heath), 
Thomas, Duke of Norfolk (after Holbein), Viscount Falkland, Sir 
George Lisle, and some early Howard miniatures : at the opposite 
end is an oval of Sir George Charles Howard (great-grandson of 
Lord William), Colonel of Cromwell's Lifeguard, one of his 
Commissioners for the North, and created, after the Restoration, 
Earl of Carlisle. 

But the picture of the house is next door, in the Music-room 
— Mabuse's Adoration : a marvellous example of detail, finish, 
and brilliance. 

A passage, forming a museum, with some original sketches 
by Van der Velde, has now to be crossed, to reach the Library, 
cased and coved with light oak, with tapestry above ; a gallery 
at either end, approached by little staircases within the panel- 
ling, serving the upper shelves. Here will be noticed over the 
chimneypiece a decorative treatment of Flodden in gesso duro, 
modelled by Sir E. Boehm, designed and painted by Sir E. Burne- 
Jones, in the manner of the bas-reliefs on the sarcophagus of 
Maximilian at Innsbruck. In the centre of the panel is Thomas 
Howard, Earl of Surrey, commander of the English troops : on 
the right James IV. falling ; on the left Lord Dacre's Horse ; 
in the background Sir Edward Stanley's archers ; and in the 
distance the Scottish camp burning. This Library was the 
Chapel, and it was this Chapel which furnished Sir Walter Scott 




291 



2Q2 



IHawortb Castle 



with his description of the chapel at Inverary Castle, in the 
Legend of Montrose. A water-colour gives such an interesting 
depiction of it, that the ravages of the fire, in this direction at any 

rate, are much to 
be regretted. 

Then upstairs, 
leaving the door 
of the Gallery on 
the left, to get up 
on to the leads ot 
Dacre Tower and 
inspect the quaint 
warder's turret, 
rising above the 
elevated look- 
outs at the other 
corners ; the last 
time watch and 
ward was kept 
being probably in 
1640, when after 
N e w b u r n the 
Scots threatened 
Carlisle, and Lord 
William, in his last illness, was removed to Greystock for safety, 
where he died. 

The Gallery, to which we may now return, was evolved by 
reducing the outer wall from seven to two feet in thickness. 
Here are several pictures of the Dutch school, a bust (Dalow) 
and portrait (Sephton) of Lord Carlisle, and three curious oak 
figures, evidently old, which came from the minstrels' gallery in 
the Hall. It is not at all likely they were ever set up on the 




LORD WILLIAM HOWARD'S ARMOUR 



Wawortb Castle 



293 



battlements (as visitors sometimes imagine) to peep over between 
the embrasures, and draw the arrow-fire of prowling miscreants ; 
but if that were so, it would at least have been but a harmless 
bit of fraud compared with that brand-new wooden dummy 
pistol (suspended here) 
without a scrap of metal 
about it, taken at Al- 
ma, by the late Sir 
Henry Layard, from the 
holster of a dead Cos- 
sack, who would have 
considerably blest the 
rascally Russian con- 
tractor, had there been 
occasion to use it. 

From the opposite 
end of the corridor is 
reached the most inter- 
esting feature of the 
Castle, Lord William's 
Tower. A narrow pas- 
sage, in which two men 
could not pass, leads to an iron-bound door, where the flames 
were so effectually stopped that all beyond it was saved. This 
tower rises upon groins thrown across the acute angle of the cur- 
tain walls, the extra space for a rectangular block being obtained 
by corbel and machicolation, as may be seen outside. The first 
room in it is the Bedroom, panelled in dark oak, and having some 
old furniture ; the central shield in the mantelpiece denoting that 
this stage was the work of Sir Thomas Dacre. A narrow newel 
stairs with well-worn treads takes one up to the Library over- 
head, also panelled, with Lord William's books on the shelves ; 




HOWARD MINIATURES 



294 



IRawortb Castle 



the windows are small and two, facing south, have steps up from 
the floor. The roof here is extremely handsome, and has good 
fourteenth-century mouldings and bosses ; but it seems far too 
heavy for such a small, low chamber ; it originally belonged to 

Kirkoswald Chapel. 
A tiny doorway, 
close by the en- 
trance, admits to the 
still smaller oratory 
adjoining. From the 
larger of the two 
windows, here, the 
view is delightfully 
sylvan, the soothing 
plash and glinting 
stream of the beck 
being heard and 
seen, far below, be- 
tween the tree-tops. 
A trapdoor in a corner 
of the floor, and 
another in the adjacent panelling between them, served for ingress 
and egress of a priest, while permitting Lord William to be in 
touch with the prisons at the base ; and it may be that Scott 
drew his description of the dungeon at Falkland Castle, in the 
Fair Maid of Perth, from what he saw here. The shield of 
Howard impaling Dacre settles the point as to the builder of this 
upper stage. At the altar-end are nine figures in alabaster, of the 
end of the fourteenth century, but recently painted and gilded ; 
probably they formed a part of what must have been a very fine 
reredos at Kirkoswald. Against the opposite wall is a large, 
wide altarpiece of the Flemish School, dated 1S14, the shields on 




MABUSE'S ADORATION " 



IRawortb Castle 



2 95 



the pillars between the subjects showing it to have been painted 
to the order of Sir Thomas Dacre ; the subjects being the Scourging, 
Crucifixion, and Resur- 
rection. Such are the 
rooms. 

And what of the 
man ? Known in his 
day as Bauld Willie, and 
later, — partly perhaps 
from the Lay of the Last 
Minstrel, as Belted Will, 
Lord William (son of the 
fourth Duke of Norfolk, 
and brother of Lord 
Thomas Howard, after- 
wards Earl of Suffolk, 
the builder of Audley 
End House) may well 
rank as the hero of Naworth, though tradition, indulgently credit- 
ing him with the doings of his predecessors, has totally ignored 
his real title to merit. It was the Dacres who kept garrisons at 

Naworth and Irthington, 
ruling the western 
marches by the sword 
from the middle of the 
thirteenth to the middle 
of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, and enjoying 
many a field day against 
the Scots. 

Lord William was 
rather an emissary of civilisation ; for which there was evidently 




THE LIBRARY- 




THE CHAPEL AS IT WAS BEFORE THE FIRE 

FROM A WATER-COLOUR DRAWING 



296 



"Wawortb Castle 



abundant need, since just before he came into actual occupation, 
the English Commissioners reported that a thousand murders, 
and thefts to the value of ,£100,000 had occurred in "the 
middle sheeres " in the past nine years. True, his arrival here 

was coeval with the 
Union, which was sup- 
posed to end all trou- 
bles ; but, far from this 
being so, the state of 
the Bo r d e r be c a m e 
worse, as those who had 
hitherto gained a living 
by hostile incursions 
into the other kingdom, 
finding their occupation 
gone, quickly betook 
themselves to robbing 
their neighbours. Or- 
ganised, to some extent, 
in their thousands, the 
Mosstroopers of Tyn- 
dale, Redesdale, Bew- 
castle, and Gilsland compelled honest people to pay blackmail for 
security ; and having relatives, dependants, and employers, all more 
or less involved in their proceedings, the ramifications of knavery 
were so extensive and intricate that the magistrates were practi- 
cally unable to interfere. So much was this the case, indeed, that 
when, in 1615, the Council asked "why, after these many years 
of peace, there is more breaking of prison, and less execution of 
justice than of yore," the answer returned was that " the Provost 
Marshall hath been of kin to many that have been heinous 
offenders," and that " it hath been observed that most gentilmen 




WARDER'S TURRET ON DACRE TOWER 




297 



2 9 8 



IHawortb dastle 




BUST AND PORTRAIT OF THE EARL OF CARLISLE 



in this Co. have had one maine theefe or other under their pro- 
tection for private ends." Even the transplantation to Ireland 
had been so abused that "barbarous offenders have been 
wincked at, and innocente soules, out of private spleen, or for 

greedy gaine, sente 
away." Therefore 
Naworth's hero had 
the irksome, thank- 
less task of creating 
respect for the law 
in a land where there 
was none, and where 
those who should 
have backed him up 
not only opposed 
him, but laid most of 
the blame at his door, in consequence of his suspected recusancy ; 
Sir John Anderson, for example, in 1517, affirming that thefts and 
murders had increased, because, under leadership of " the enemies 
of true religion " — meaning Lord William — the people had largely 
become "papists and theeves, living without fear of God, or re- 
gard of any wholesome laws." 

Up to this time Bauld Willie's sphere of influence was local ; 
but the following year he was made head of the Border Com- 
missioners ; and then he pretty quickly retaliated on those de- 
tractors who talked about wholesome laws, and, much to their 
dismay, made his enemies "sit up." He drew up a long report 
of " disordered persons," whose enlargement was a public 
scandal. From this report, it appears, a not uncommon practice 
was for felons and outlaws to drive off sheep or cattle by night, 
maiming or murdering any pursuer ; and then, after passing on 
the spoil to receivers, to bolt to Ireland for awhile, and presently 




299 



3°° 



IRawortb Castle 




CN THE IRTHINQ 



return to resume operations ; or, if caught by garrison-troopers 
doing police-duty, either to be bailed and not appear at the as- 
size, or promptly break gaol with impunity ; for either of which 
eventualities money would be readily forthcoming, since, when 

one of their friends was 
in trouble, the whole 
company would advance 
large sums from the com- 
mon stock. 

On these goings-on 
the Chief Commissioner 
forcibly remarks : - 
''When such c o n- 
nivencie and favor is 
shewed to such a cursed 
generation, no marvaile though theft increaseth — sanguis Abdi 
olamat de terra!' And therefore what redounds so much 
to Lord William's credit is that, between 1018 and 1636, he 
managed to get brought to account sixty-eight malefactors 
(nearly all of whom were executed) in a region where, before, it 
had been hard to get one conviction ; more particularly so, as by 
nature he was a man of culture and scholarship, who much 
preferred studying theology, deciphering Roman legends " crag- 
carven o'er the streaming Gelt," and making sketches for Cam- 
den's Britannia, to hearing informations against some wretched 
Jock of the Rigg, Pele of the Hill, or Robin of the Pike, who 
must needs find lodgment in his dungeons on their way to 
Carlisle. 

Happily no rank-riders need be feared on our way to Laner- 
cost ; so we may safely proceed down the glen, noting the 
picturesque sandstone rocks, and the profusion of shuttlecock 
ferns. A good deal might be said of those ferns, if one were 




30i 



302 



IHawortb Castle 



/ - flHfl mt -" ^WBS 

■fc yff T- * 5^ I flu 



ANOTHER VIEW OF LANERCOST PRIORY 



writing of a Devonshire combe or a Cornish "bottom"; but it 
would never do to go into ecstasies, here in the canny North, 
within easy reach of Tyneside. From the stone bridge below, 
the slope to the left should be mounted for the only good view 

of the Castle ; after 
which the " loaning" 
by the stream will 
take you down to the 
broad lawn of the 
Irthing, where, un- 
less the river be in 
fl o o d , stepping - 
stones provide a short 
cut to the Priory. 

This stately semi- 
ruin will bear visiting 
more than once : to ramble through the vaulted cellars, the Prior's 
mansion, and dormer ; to study the advance in Early English de- 
tail from east to west, in pier, lancet, and triforium ; or to meditate 
among the tombs. Founded in i [69 by Robert de Vaux, it was 
gradually added to or reconstructed as funds came in : Maude de 
Vaux, whose granddaughter was abducted from Warwick Castle 
by Ranulph Dacre, proving in her widowhood, about 1280, a spe- 
cial benefactor. At that date, also, Edward I. and Eleanor visited 
the place, the Royal party hunting the wolf and red-deer ; perhaps 
finding cause to bless the holy god Silvanus, like the hunters of 
Banna who recorded their thanks on an altar here ; or perhaps 
coming across a descendant of that boar of prodigious size, 
which moved the prefect of the Sebosian Cavalry to exult at 
scoring off those "many of his predecessors who had not been 
able to take it." Doubtless the Priory would benefit financially 
by the King's visit, and may have looked forward to a good time 




303 



304 "ttawortb Castle 

ahead. But, in 1296, down came the Scots, ravaging the country 
under the Earl of Buchan ; " blooding their arms upon old 
women, transfixing children with their spears," and performing 
even more atrocities than that ; also assembling the scholars of 
Hexham and then firing the school ; and next, after damaging 
Hexham Abbey so far as time allowed, passing on to raid 
Lanercost. 

These outrages brought Edward back in 1306. He sent his 
judges to Berwick, where they tried any number of peace- 
breakers, and suspended Lady Buchan over the wall in a cage 
eight feet square ; a solitary, silent incarceration, most trying to 
one of the less-silent sex, but at least more airy than a cell. 
While the King wintered at Lanercost, Thomas Bruce was brought 
there a prisoner, and sent thence to Carlisle, to be dragged round 
the walls like Hector — an indignity which his brother Robert was 
not slow to avenge on Lanercost ; after which presently David 
appeared on the scene, stole the treasures, smashed the doors, 
and "reduced to nothingness" everything" he attacked. Subse- 
quently the black canons patched up their buildings as best they 
could with Dacre and other help, and so remained in possession 
till the dissolution. The nave of the Priory is now the parish 
church. The turf-floored, roofless transept and choir aisles con- 
tain some elaborate tombs, the most noteworthy being the one 
either of the Sir Roland de Vaux of Scoffs Bridal of Trier main, 
or else a later De Vaux of the same name, and those of Sir 
Humphrey Dacre, whose wife was Mabel Parr, great-aunt to 
Queen Catharine and Sir Thomas Dacre, who married the De 
Greystock heiress, and died in 1525. After climbing the winding 
steps in the transept, if your nerves allow of your passing along 
the open passage in the clerestory, conclusive evidence will be 
found, in the altar dedicated by the first cohort of Dacians to 
Jupiter, best and greatest, that, not content with robbing the wall 



IRawortb Castle 305 

near at hand, the masons went at least as far as Amboglanna for 
material. 

This station, now called Burdoswald, the quarters for a time 
of the Sixth Legion, is not far from the Spa at Gilsland ; the 
guard-chambers, gateways, private museum, and splendid view 
in front of the camp, with the tawny Irthing sweeping round 
below, all being worth going to see. 

But a much more interesting camp is that of Borcovicus 
(Housesteads), farther afield, up in the waste north of Haltwhistle, 
beloved of rievers, and famous for plenty of fresh air, rain, and 
thunder-storms,— thunder-storms, as I can well testify, having 
spent an afternoon at Housesteads while the Northumbrian 
archaeologists were engaged in their recent excavations, and 
having witnessed their men calmly working on, and turning out 
a little peat-blackened altar at the foot of the camp, under an 
almost horrifying darkness, with thunder and lightning just over- 
head ; — but, when the weather is favourable, there are bonnie 
views of Greenlee and Croomlee loughs. And an impressive 
sight it is to scan the great bulwark, here, ruthlessly holding its 
undeviating course across hill and gap. The extra-massive ma- 
sonry of the gateway fronting the north ; the bases of pillars in the 
pnetorium ; the lower courses of well-built streets once thronged 
by Tungrians, — of whose sojourn, in these regions, an interesting 
bit of evidence remains, in Erinus Hispaniciis, still found growing 
by the wall, and believed to have been introduced as seed, among 
the forage brought with them, — sufficiently demonstrate and 
symbolise the invincible might of Rome. And when you con- 
sider how, in the construction of a wall twelve feet high and 
seventy miles long, every facing-stone has been carefully squared, 
faced, and tapered, and the entire rampart so regularly spaced 
into permanent camps, mile-castles, and turrets, that, while no- 
where defenceless, it was capable of concentrating its fifteen 



306 IRawortb Castle 

thousand defenders anywhere at short notice ; and when you 
observe from the Itinerary that the bulk of the troops who built 
and manned it were cohorts of foreign mercenaries, you hardly 
wonder that while the soldiery were raising altars to Cocidius, 
Belatucador, the gods of Rome, and the Standards, somebody 
should have been prompted by this monument of military genius 
to inscribe one "to the discipline of Augustus," whether Hadrian 
or Severus were meant. That particular stone, by the way, with 
many from this station, and a spirited sporting sketch graved by 
some wee Roman laddie, are to be seen — under restrictions — at 
the Chesters camp near Chollerford ; but it is a tedious place to 
get to and away from, and the museum might happen to be 
closed. 

Fortunately you can always fall back upon the Tullie House 
Museum at Carlisle, serving all purposes and imposing no restric- 
tions. There, any weekday, may be inspected, besides other 
evidences of Roman civilisation, a variety of those statues and 
altars with inscriptions in boldest capitals, which the centurions 
and decurions could get cut with such skill and taste, at a time 
when the wild men of Pictland and Caledon could not scratch 
their own names, and satisfied all their aspirations towards art 
in bedizening their persons with woad. 



Unverara\> 



307 




INVERARAY CASTLE 



INVERARAY 



BY A. H. MALAN 



PERSONALLY REVISED BY HIS GRACE, THE DUKE OF ARGYLE, K.T. 

THE capital of Argyllshire may be said to owe its being to 
the House of Lochow. Before the land knew the name 
of Campbell, a few huts there may have been at the 
Aray's mouth, to leeward of the point where now the Lord of the 
Isles touches daily in summer ; but all the importance of the 
place is due to those chiefs, of the race of Diarmaid, who have 
been successively known as MacCailean (not MacCallum) Mhor 
since the great Colin was knighted by Alexander 111., 1280. 
The knight died fighting against Macdougal of Lome, 1204 ; and 
his son Nigel, for prowess at Bannockburn, was given Lady 
Mary, sister of Robert Bruce, to wife. 

But there were great men before Agamemnon ; and the clan 

309 



iIO 



Inveraray 



is said to go back to Archibald Cambel, who acquired the lord- 
ship of Lochawe by marriage (1067) with Eva, daughter and co- 
heiress of Paul O'duin, purse-bearer to Malcolm 111. Thus the 
cradle of the family was on Lochawe-side ; where the MacArthur 
strain held the chiefship till the MacCailean branch began to take 




A STREET IN INVERARAY 



the lead, and moved over to Inveraray early in the fifteenth cent- 
ury. Duncan Campbell of Lochow, who first built at Inveraray, 
married the daughter of the Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, 
who had been supposed not to be keen to get James I. back from 
his eighteen years' captivity at Windsor. She was the grand- 
daughter of Robert II., and at Kilmun — a church, endowed by 
Duncan, of which the Burial chapel still exists off the old chancel 
— there is a contemporary recumbent figure of this lady. Her 
husband is also there, in hard sandstone, represented in plate 
armour. 

After this, by serving the Crown, against rebels, in the various 
parts of Argyll, Lome, Kintyre, and the Western Islands, the 
Campbells of Inveraray became possessed of lands in these 




3" 



11nverara\? 313 

regions, through the combined agencies of clan warfare, purchase, 
Royal grant, and marriage. 

In the acquisition of all this territory, the Macdonalds, 
Stewarts, Macdougals, Macgregors, etc., no doubt confidently 
affirmed that unfair means were used. And in a primitive state 
of things, when to fight and plunder is held more honourable 
than to work, and when the power of the sword — i.e. the num- 
ber of followers a chief could call out — alone decided whether, in 
the struggle for existence, there should be expansive independ- 
ence, or tributary subordination, if not absorption, for a clan, it 
would be idle to expect nicest political morality. But it is certain 
the Campbells got large grants from the Crown, for services 
rendered to successive English sovereigns ; while the disloyal 
clans suffered heavily for their disloyalty, and then, laying the 
blame, not on their having failed, through want of prevision, to 
embrace the winning cause, but on Campbell arrogance and bad 
faith, solaced themselves as best they could with the sense of 
being aggrieved. 

This aggressiveness and predominancy, however, there 
seemed a chance from time to time of the clans in question 
being able to shake off. When, as champion of popular liberty 
and the " Reign of Law," and as staunch supporter of the Pro- 
testant creed, the House of Argyll ranged itself on the side of 
Cromwell and of William of Orange, the aggrieved clans were 
only too ready to combine against it under cover of a professed 
loyalty to the Stuart cause ; and delighted they were when, in 
104s, fifteen hundred of Clan Campbell perished at Inverlochy ; 
in 1661, when the Marquis of Argyll was beheaded and his 
enormous possessions forfeited; in 1681, when, under orders of 
James, the ever-hungry Athol horde swooped down on Inveraray, 
strung up seventeen Campbells who were thought to have been 
out with the Earl, and proceeded so to ravage Loch-Fyne-side, 



314 1lnv>etarap 

that " not a four-footed beast was left in the haill country " ; and 
again when, four years later, the Marquis's son succumbed, in his 
turn, to the Scottish Madin. 

So odious, indeed, was the name at that time, that it was 
even threatened with proscription ; and what proscription meant 
is seen in the case of the Macgregors, after they had smashed a 
sept of Colquhouns, at Glenfruin, for being guilty of the basest 
treachery. When sixty Colquhoun widows appeared in single file 
before the gates of Stirling, each bearing an upraised pike flying 
the shirt her husband was supposed to have worn, duly drenched 
with blood, it was scarcely playing the game ; but they made a 
moving scene, and they got their revenge : the Macgregors must 
be broken ! No minister might thenceforth name a child pregor, 
under pain of deprivation ; and every " lawless limmer " of Clan 
Alpin who failed to report himself annually to the Privy Council, 
might, after proclamation, be hunted and slain with impunity by 
any subject of the King. 

But it never came to that in this case. On the contrary, the 
Campbells began a fresh innings at the Revolution ; though the 
Macdonalds, Camerons, and others tried hard to cut it short at 
Killiecrankie, and more or less kept up their spleen till their 
aspirations were once for all checked in that rising for the Cheval- 
ier which culminated and collapsed in Culloden. For the year 
following, 1747, came the Disarming Act, connected with which, 
it may be remembered, was this cheerful oath : 

"I . . . do swear 1 have not nor shall have in my pos- 
session any gun, sword, pistol, or arm whatsoever, and never use 
tartan, plaid, or any part of the highland garb ; and if I do, may 1 
be cursed in my undertakings, may I never see my wife and child- 
ren or relatives ; may I be killed in battle as a coward, and lie 
without Christian burial in a strange land, far from the graves of 
my kindred." 




3t5 



o 



1 6 1lm>erara\> 



This inexorable and execrable Act was quickly repealed ; but 
the spirit of the Highlanders was curbed, and the time soon came 
when a strolling piper might strike up The Hieland Laddie, or 
skirl away at The Campbells are Coming, without any of his list- 
eners wanting to draw dirk on one another, or even himself run- 
ning risk of a broken head. 

Inveraray is an uncut gem in an elaborate setting. One of the 
finest beech avenues in Scotland opens from its front through 
three arches, giving the facade of the town a very picturesque 
and unusual appearance ; but the town itself has few urban 
amenities, and the kirk-bisected street is by no means lovely ; 
though these deficiencies may well be excused, with an environ- 
ment of such splendid scenery. 

The old Castle was a good specimen of that type of Scots 
architecture, with stepped, chimney-capped gables, and extruded 
pepper-pot angle-turrets, which to English ideas suggests a tall, 
narrow, semi-fortified house rather than a castle. It might per- 
haps have been done up and added to ; but was considered poor 
and mean, and taken down about 1760. And be it said, in pass- 
ing, that, in his description of the Chapel, in the Legend of Mon- 
trose, what Sir Walter had in his mind was the Chapel at 
Naworth ; which was as he describes in his day, but having been 
burnt out by a fire, it has more recently been modernised into a 
Library. Immediately on the destruction of old Inveraray, the 
present Castle was planned, a bowshot off; and when completed 
was the largest and grandest domestic building north of the 
Tweed. Quadrangular in ground-plan, with a circular turret run- 
ning up each corner, it is a storey higher than it looks, from the 
basement being below ground level. The principal rooms are 
grouped round a central Hall open to the roof and lighted by a 
pavilion. 

In the Hall, arranged in pleasing devices about the walls, 




317 



,iS 



flnverarap 



above and below, are stands of tasselled halberds, used in attend- 
ance upon that office of Justiciary of Argyll and the Isles which 
was hereditary in this family until its abolition in 1746, when the 
sum of .£21,000 was paid the Earl of Islay as compensation. 

Also, some of the flint- 
locks as supplied by the 
English Government for 
Argyll's men, in the '4s. 
But much more note- 
worthy are the older 
arms. One realises 
what terrible antagon- 
ists were those "half- 
heathen mountaineers, " 
as Macaulay is bold to 
call them, with their 
claymores, targets, and 
Lochaber axes. What 
the claymore could do, 
and did, was shown at 
Inverlochy, when Don- 
ald nan Ord, an Athol man, slew nineteen Campbells with his 
own hand ; and at Culloden, when William Chisholm, of 
Strathglas, killed sixteen of the enemy, three of them troopers. 
Even the small, round, tastefully studded Gaelic target was not 
content with being merely for defence ; it was often furnished 
with a sharp stiletto, protruding from the central boss and as long 
as the shield's diameter — ready to impale any foe rushing on it, 
before the claymore polished him off, and, maybe, the hands ri- 
fled his sporran. As for the Lochaber axes, with shafts from 
seven to ten feet, and deep, cruel blades bearing the workman- 
like and revengeful mottoes, frangas non flectes, sans peur, and 




THE HALL FROM ABOVE 



1lnverara\> 



3'9 



ne obliviscaris, they were indeed frightful brands ! Wielded by 
the galloglach — tallest and most stalwart of the clan — they would 
slash horses' heads, cleave their riders' skulls, or hook them bod- 
ily off their mounts, while their users were themselves almost 
out of range. Two men 
of the Black Watch 
fought with these pikes 
before George II., in 
1741 ; but the blades 
must surely have been 
well covered. 

For an old Scottish 
harp one looks in vain ; 
which is a pity. For 
the Campbells were 
famous for their harp- 
ers, one of whom ac- 
companied the first 
Earl, to animate his 
troops. Indeed, one of 
the noted harps of Lude 
came from Argyllshire, 
through the daughter of the Laird of Lamont, who married into 
the family of Lude. 

In the Saloon adjoining, the pictures will give some glimpses 
of family history. Taken chronologically, the following are ob- 
served : "The Marquis of Argyll " (King Campbell), who used 
his vast authority wholly in the cause of religious and civil free- 
dom. He could muster five thousand claymores taken from his 
own clan, and was largely engaged in all Scottish affairs, both in 
the field and at Edinburgh, from 1626 till the Restoration. Suffer- 
ing heavily at his hands, he lived to be instrumental in effecting 




ARMS IN THE HALL 



2>2o flnverarap 

the execution of the gallant Montrose (1650), but only to lose his 
own head eleven years later. 

"John, second Duke," of Argyll and Greenwich — Red John 
the warrior — "the State's whole thunder born to wield" ; than 
whom, says Scott, few men deserve more honourable mention. 
He served under Marlborough with considerable distinction. On 
the death of Queen Anne he frustrated, along with Somerset and 
Shrewsbury, the plot for the accession of the Pretender. His last 
engagement was against the Jacobite army which was under the 
Earl of Mar, at Sheriffmuir, when, in consequence of the battle 
being drawn, he is reported to have exclaimed, — 

" If it was not weel bobbit. weel bobbit, weel bobbit, 
If it was not weel bobbit, we '11 bob it again " ; 

after which, in princely retirement, he may have planted some of 
the trees that are still standing. A contemporary of this Duke, if 
not related to him, was John, Earl of Crawford, Colonel of the 
42nd, who was the last known to dance the ancient Highland 
sword dance, in which the two-handed sword was whirled round 
the head. 

"Archibald, third Duke," as Earl of lslay in Sessions Robes, 
who planned the Castle. 

"John Campbell, of Mamore " (his cousin), fourth Duke, 
(Gainsborough), who fought at Culloden. He married the " Hon. 
Mary Bellenden," maid of honour to Queen Caroline. 

"John, fifth Duke," who served against the Highlanders at Faj- 
kirk ; and " Elizabeth Gunning," his duchess — the proud mother 
of four dukes, having previously wedded the sixth Duke of Ham- 
ilton. (A specially pleasing head and bust, by Dronai, also bears 
her name, but is suggested to be a likeness of her mother.) 

"George, sixth Duke," a friend of the Regent, and extrava- 
gant in expenditure. 




321 



322 1lnv>erara\> 

"John Douglas, seventh Duke," his brother — a Guardsman, 
who took part in the Walcheren expedition — and their two sis- 
ters, "Lady Charlotte," celebrated for her good looks, and 
" Lady Augusta," who may have resembled her in that particular, 
but was unhappily paralysed. These four pictures are by Opie. 

At one end of the room is a large picture which has rather 
suffered at some time from being put in too small a frame ; it re- 
presents "Henry Seymour, Field-Marshal Conway" (Gainsbor- 
ough), whose wife was grand-aunt to the late Duke of Argyll. 
He was a very distinguished man, and is said by Edmund Burke 
to have had, when he spoke, "a face as the face of an angel." 
At the other end is a full-length portrait of the " Eighth Duke of 
Hamilton " (Pompeo Battoni), son of Elizabeth Gunning by her 
first husband. 

In the photograph frames on the tables are autographed por- 
traits of most of the Royal Family ; and in a cabinet are some 
noticeable things : a colossal Cairngorm brooch given by the 
county to Sir Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde, and by him left to the 
Duke ; a wooden drinking-cup of the Marquis of Argyll, very sim- 
ilar to one at Cotehele ; two Celtic gold cloak-fasteners, and an 
armlet ; and a strip, with flowers outlined on it in what would now 
be called crewel-stitch, from the blanket used by the ninth Earl in 
Glasgow prison, before he was removed to Edinburgh. That un- 
fortunate Earl fought for the King at Worcester and Dunbar ; 
then submitted himself to Cromwell ; but was suspected, in con- 
sequence of his known previous attachment to Charles II. , and 
imprisoned till the Restoration. Later, on the Test Act being 
subscribed to by him with qualms and qualifications, he was 
again imprisoned on an old charge ; but managed to effect his 
escape through the aid of Macarthur of Drimurcht, who entered 
the prison with his gillie, dressed the gillie in female attire, and 
rigged out the Earl in the gillie's get-up — himself acting as page 




32 ? 



324 flnverarap 

to the supposititious lady. The Earl got safely away to Holland ; 
to return in [685 as nominal head of the refugee Covenanters. And 
his invasion of Scotland might have had a different ending if its 
generalship had been committed to his sole charge, instead of the 
affair being bungled, as it was, by a Committee of mismanage- 
ment. He was succeeded by his son, the tenth Earl, who, after 
tendering the crown to William, was by him created Duke in 
1701. 

In the Smaller Drawing-room, next door, is some Flemish 
tapestry, from designs by D. Teniers ; it is believed to have been 
taken out of the old Castle, as it is all pieced, and evidently made 
for smaller rooms. Over the mantelpiece is a portrait of the pre- 
sent Duke's mother, Lady Elizabeth Sutherland-Gower. 

In the State Bedroom, where hangs some more Flemish 
tapestry, the furniture is French, Louis XVI. period. 

Similarly furnished is the State Drawing-room. It has a ceil- 
ing of delicate pale blue, cream, and peach-pink tints, with shut- 
ters to match ; the tapestry shows children, goats, and dogs, 
with flower-borderings ; and over the mantelpiece is a more im- 
posing portrait of Lady Charlotte than the one before noticed. 
In this room the fifth Duke entertained Dr. Johnson, and Boswell 
made himself obnoxious to the Duchess of Hamilton and 
Argyll. 

Upstairs there will be found a lovely view from the Queen's 
turret-room window. Immediately below flows the river ; on its 
farther bank is some level ground, with a mound having rather an 
artificial, crannoge-like appearance — the land around it probably 
once being under water : this is the " knowe," the spot used for 
ratifying clan-covenants, the burgh's gibbet, and the point of 
departure for every Fiery Cross despatched up the glen for 
muster of MacCailean's clansmen. In front is the loch ; and 
then, rising above the slopes of its opposite shore, those snowy 




325 



126 



Hiivcraravi 



caps — Ben Ime, Stob-an-eas, Strone-Fyne — perpetually meet the 
eye whenever it turns eastward. 

But the individuality of Inveraray is rather in its woods than 
mountains. Pray pay some attention to the trees ; they deserve 

it. Close to the Castle, 
in the Lady's Linn, is a 
particularly fine Scotch 
fir — girth, at five feet 
from the ground (1898), 
13 feet 10 inches, height 
125 feet — still in its 
prime; near it, but across 
Frews Bridge, is a Doug- 
las, planted by Prince 
Leopold, in 1875, and a 
silver, planted by the 
Queen about the same 
date. A remarkable fea- 
ture about the silvers, 
besides their massive 
trunks, is the fact that 
they never get ragged 
at the top. Additional 
leaders, according to wont, of course they will throw up ; but 
even so, they seem almost to feather up to a point. At a dis- 
tance it is hard to distinguish these trees from the spruces, which 
attain almost similar magnitude — the soil being just suited to 
their habits, its very shallowness encouraging growth by com- 
pelling surface- rootage ; and how far the roots extend is often 
enough seen when some veteran, blown down by a gale, displays 
an up-wrenched root-area whose diameter may be thirty feet. Go 
where you will, landward, you are confronted by silvers and 




ifc*5*-. i . 



SCOTCH FIR, 125 FEET HIGH 



Inveraray 



527 




BEECH AVENUE LEADING TO DHL) LOCH 



spruces, rearing their heads aloft above the other timber, and 
attaining an altitude not easily estimated except by actual meas- 
urement — some, 140 feet. 

Suppose we go over the Aray Bridge, past the secluded cem- 
etery of Kilma- 
lieu knowing no 
different denom- 
ination divid- 
ing-lines for its 
Inveraray dead. 
1 f y o u c 1 i m b 
Dun-a-quoich, 
which is one of 
the things to do, 
you may come 
across some of 
the Canadian turkeys introduced by the present Duke, and ap- 
parently quite acclimatised ; or, if you skirt the base, you may 
detect a couple of good Scotch firs of 1 10 feet, and sundry silvers 
and spruces considerably higher than that. The drive will take 
you on, through an avenue of English yews planted the year the 
Duke was born, and lead to a double row of old beeches, some 
of them 80 feet high. Not that tallness is any recommendation 
here. Planted far too close together, and never thinned, they 
have run up in a way calculated to make any forester blush ; 
though they may have served a purpose in forming a screen 
across the level ground. 

From Boshang Gate let us proceed round the point, towards 
Dundarawe Castle and the head of the loch. As it is spring, no 
whales will be seen spouting, though some small ones come up 
in summer and stop awhile ; but perchance a gannet or two may 
dash down precipitately, as though in search of the treasure 



328 



"flnverarap 



Colin Iangatach threw into the depths, lest his sons should fight 
over the spoil. This Colin it was who was nearly burnt alive, 
through some MacCalluins of Lochow, along with his brother 
Ivar, plotting against him under guise of hospitality. They in- 
vited him to a feast, 
and he went — armed. 
The feast over, he re- 
tired to rest — in a barn : 
the barn was fired, his 
coat of mail became 
scorched and he awoke 
and rushed out madly 
into a pool near Kilmar- 
tine, still called, from 
the episode, Linne-na- 
liurich. His brother re- 
ceived as a reward the 
lands of Ardkinglas, 
which seems curious ; 
and if the Mad v a r 
Campbells of Ardtor- 
nish and Asknish have 
had a kink in their characters, it may be set down to their descent 
from Ivar the Cross-grained. 

Dundarawe Castle has some old stones grouped about its 
door, on one of which is the date 1596. But those stones came 
from an old Macnaghten Castle which stood on an islet in Glen 
Shira, near where the Dhu Loch now flows into Loch Fyne. 
Opposite Dundarawe, across the Loch, is Ardkinglas. John, the 
last Macnaghten of Dundarawe, would wed the younger daugh- 
ter of Campbell of Ardkinglas ; but the elder was substituted 
when the bridegroom had the mountain dew on him. Then the 




DUNDARAWE CASTLE 




VIEW OF LOCH AWE AND CRUACHAN, FROM ABOVE CLADICH 



3=y 



33Q flnvcraras 

supplanted sister visited the couple, and presently the inevitable 
happened. John went off with her, and they were never heard 
of again ; while the deserted wife stopped behind and composed 
a lament. So Dundarawe came to the Campbells. 

Or, from Boshang G;ite, you may go past the Dhu Loch, 
and up Kilblaan — a deep gorge with almost perpendicular sides 
clothed with oak saplings, and fringed with larch-clumps beloved 
of black game. Higher up it opens out into several heads, form- 
ing precipitous little corries, with a water-fall in one ; nests of 
buzzard and raven in the sheer rock bespeak a seclusion such 
as might have served outlawed Rob Roy almost as well as his 
fastness under the shade of Ben Buie. 

Southward from the town, you are likely to be beguiled into 
Eas-o-chosain, a glen of such a sort that the ninth Earl only 
hoped he might find heaven half as beautiful ; and on returning 
you might work your way along the loch, past Craig Bruach 
Lodge with its well-grown silver of 114 feet, and make for Dal- 
chenna Bank, where is to be found the King of the Forest — a 
silver : girth, at five feet, 18 feet ; height, 148 feet. 

Above this bank is the high ground of Ach-na-goul, which 
Rob the cateran crossed many a time with his drove ; and from 
the tor which overlooks a rifled, chambered cairn (130 feet long, 
40 feet wide), there is a most pleasing prospect of Loch Fyne, and 
Strachur, and those Cowal hills where fell the last wild boar. 
And from there, a charming drive — public or private one knows 
not — down the Douglas water, might enable you to see a silver 
and spruce side by side for comparison, of which the former is 
147 feet, but the latter was not measured ; and you would then 
emerge on the foreshore at Kilbride, where gossip says the Prin- 
cess Louise wanted to build, but was not allowed, lest a building 
should spoil the landscape, and hurt the highly artistic eye of the 
late Duke. Probably, now that, as Duchess of Argyll, H.R.H. is 





INVERARAY TOWN FROM THE SOUTH 



331 



332 



Unverarai? 




THE TOWN CROSS 



in the position to gratify her wish, the wish itself may have 
vanished. 

Such a round as this gives a good enough sample of Inveraray 

scenery ; and the artist 
may choose purely syl- 
van subjects or sketch- 
able bits of loch and 
river scene, below, or 
go in for breadth and 
distance, above. 

But for grandeur, 
variety, and expanse, 
one would preferably 
take the road to- 
wards Cladich. Starting from the town cross (which has cur- 
ious battle-axe-like terminations — c. 1500), commemorating 
some people blessed with the name of Meichgyllichomghan, 
our way lies through the lodge gates into Winterton Park. 
The herons, nesting upon the slope of Croitville, seem to 
be looking down super- 
ciliously on the laddies 
playing shinty below. 
The Scotch fir, to the 
right, on the flat, is 105 
feet high, and has a 
spread of 69 feet. Two 
Nobilis pines and two 
Wellingtonias, a little 
farther on, were planted 
by the German Em- 
peror, thirty years ago ; and some very stately silvers of 145 feet 
tower up behind the stables. 




CARLONAN POOL 




333 



334 



llnvcrarav? 






■4^ 



* • *«£•> 



RUINED CHAPEL. PASS OF BRANDER BEYOND 



Following the Aray, you soon reach Carlonan, a pool of con- 
siderable depth, with its famous Atholl tree — /, e., a Scotch fir 
planted by the Atholl people, who lived at Inveraray for some time 
when the Argyll estates were forfeit ; the Marquis of Atholl being 
then Lord Lieutenant. Here a conundrum awaits the geologist, 

in the granite being 
over the limestone, just 
as in a certain Cornish 
mine it may be seen 
above the slate. A 
short distance above 
this pool there should 
be sought out some of 
the finest larches on 
the estate ; and as one 
looks at their clean, 
120-feet stems, it is amusing to recall that when first intro- 
duced the tree was considered tender, some young ones at 
Dunkeld being only reluctantly allowed to take their chance 
out-of-doors, in consequence of having grown too big for the 
greenhouse. 

Continuing up-stream, we reach the larger pool of Linne- 
na-glutan. On the occasion when her Majesty picnicked here, 
ninety-six salmon were taken out, at one haul of the net. This 
seems a remarkable number : but the fish require a good head of 
water to negotiate the falls, and, while awaiting a spate, accum- 
ulate in such pools as these. 

And now the ground begins to rise and get more open, 
the last outpost of trees is passed, and for some miles of 
gentle but continuous ascent there is nothing but moorland ; 
until, the ridge at last gained, a new world suddenly pre- 
sents itself. 



flnverara? 335 

Away, opposite, bulks Cruachan, one of the tops of Argyll- 
shire, and the most familiar word to every man in it ; with many 
another silvered ben reaching away to the right. On either hand, 
an expanse of broken ground trends down to that extensive 
stretch of fresh water dividing Argyll from Lome, on which re- 
poses many an island. (And the temptation to explore those 
islands need not be resisted, as it is not at all a far cry to Lochawe 
— the usual way being to go on, through Cladich, to Dalmally, 
and take train ; alighting at Lochawe station, where boats and 
gillies abound.) 

Just where the water seems to end, in our view, stands Kil- 
churn Castle, on a spur jutting into the loch. Over the Keep 
doorway is the date 1 1>93 (the year after the massacre of Glen- 
coe), some Campbell initials, and the motto, Folow me ; but the 
Keep itself is older, dating from about 144s, when flourished 
Colin Campbell, first Knight of Glenorchy, founder of the Bread- 
albane family, uncle to the first Earl of Argyll ; and uncle also to 
the lady who married Maclean of Duart, and was abandoned by 
him on the Lady Rock, between Mull and Lismore. She was 
rescued by a boat, and returned to Inveraray, where presently 
Maclean appeared with a plausible tale of her death. The Earl 
made no comment, but with deep contempt opened a door in the 
Hall, and in she stepped ! The would-be murderer was allowed 
to go free, but was eventually assassinated at Edinburgh, by, it is 
said, Sir John Campbell of Cawdor, who married Muriel, the 
heiress and last Calder of that ilk. 

Sir Colin, of Kilchurn, was a Crusader; and the legend of 
the attentions paid his wife (Lady Margaret Stewart), after her 
husband's assumed death, her contemplated marriage with a 
baron, and the sudden return of the Crusader, is absurdly similar 
to the one told of a certain crusading Popham. 

Kilchurn we cannot see ; but yonder is prettily wooded 



OJ 1 - 



flnverara^ 



Fraoch Eilean —the Macdonald slogan — once owned by the Lords 
of Lome, and granted to Macnaghten by Alexander 111. 

That long, low-lying green island is the sacred Innishail, 
" the kneeling isle," which has witnessed many a weird, impres- 
sive scene, when Macarthur chiefs have been borne thither at 
night from Ardconnel, for burial by torchlight. The buildings of 
the Cistercian monastery have long disappeared ; but there re- 
main the crumbling walls of a small chapel — its interior crowded 
with grass-grown tombs, with a weathered old cross sticking up 
curiously in the middle. In the burial-ground outside, one 
least of the Macarthur slabs may be observed ; its moss-covei 
sculpture is interesting, if barbaric. The figures, all one size, are 
arranged in a row from end to end of its horizontal face. In the 
centre is the Crucifixion ; and on either side are ranged sor 
Campbell men-at-arms with plumed helmets, between two 
whom rides the Galley of Lome, which the Campbells got ' 
heiress-marriage from the Stewarts, as the Stewarts had got it, i 
the same way, from the Macdougals. 

To the left of this island, from our present standpoint, the in- 
dentation just at the foot of Cruachan shows where the loch runs 
in to meet the gloomy, sterile Pass of Brander, where Bruce 
fought the Macdougal. 

As a whole, it is a splendid panorama ; and may well, as is 
supposed, have inspired Burke for his " Essay on the Sublime and 
the Beautiful." Given a clear day — or better still, one a wee bit 
soft, but with rapid alternations of sun and shower, to give an 
ever-changing play of light on storm-brushed mountain and 
cloud-flecked foreground — and it will be no effort at all to Speak 
weel of the Hielands. In winter's rigour, no doubt — when rab- 
bits peel the young trees, red deer rind the rowans and come 
almost to hand to be fed, and the gulls alight on Inveraray's 



flnveravap 337 

window-sills, clamouring for food — this Argyll country will be 
stern and desolate enough. But it is not always winter ; and 
consequently on the propriety of the advice tendered in the rest 
of the proverb, but live in the laigh, there may be room for some 
difference of opinion ; as there is, indeed, on almost all things — 
even on the identity of the Scottish bluebell. 



H 70 89 ) 




\ ^^mk°- /\^<>- ^*$ikS /siiik*^ 








**^ /J l\ '^^ 






£ ^, - 








^v 



^ ^ /Jtef- to t * - 




v^ 



P • A V t< 

'♦ ^ t? 





'\ 



** -« \ 




!> o»-*^^ "\ * ..'••• *i 



* a^ t*. 'Self's* <■? °^ o-> 




°o 






































C, vP 












• A^<V - ^ 






<► *'7V 











o 'o . » * a <> 




't* A*' ► 

• to <£ ♦. 

r * A^ "K 












^ aV b » 














JP^ v 



^ * 


















-i. v . 



IV. 



'-f. _« 



A? #•, ° 











* a^ ^-. '*^mif^ «? v 



-f, .< 




[HECKMAN 
BINDERY INC. 






HECKMAN lil .J | : U 

BINDERY INC. 1^1 ^ o^ 

fitfi*. N.MANCHESTER 



